A Hezbollah-aligned Al-Mahdi Muslim center in Germany heard its leader urge supporters to wage “resistance” against the “enemy” state of Israel on Saturday.
The Neue Westfälischeregional newspaper reports that Hassan Jawad, chairman of the Al Mahdi cultural center in the city of Münster, claimed “Israel is the enemy – we are carry out resistance,” during an interview.
Jawad’s exhortation came one week after German intelligence agencies released a report claiming that militant fighters from the extremist Hezbollah terrorist organisation were able to hide among asylum seekers during the height of the migrant crisis and smuggle themselves into Germany.
As Breitbart London reported, the report reveals that many of the migrants fought for Shi’ite militia groups in Syria who largely worked with Hezbollah and Iran to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Whilst numbers are unclear, the report estimates there to be 950 operatives of the group seeking a new home in Germany with many moving to the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) region.
The NRW interior minister Herbert Reul told the Jerusalem Post that “when somebody in Germany says that Israel is the enemy, that is, for me, intolerable. I am a big friend of Israel, and the friendship to Israel belongs to Germany’s raison d’état. Therefore this statement [from Hassan Jawad] is condemned by me in the strongest terms.”
The Al Mahdi center has served as a hotbed for Hezbollah activity for over 20 years, according to the paper’s report. The center also seeks to “elevate its voice to the Shiite religion and cultivate the local culture. Young people are expected to learn Arabic and read the Koran.”
When asked if the interior ministry plans to ban the center, the ministry told the Post that “associations that support Hezbollah can presently be banned, if financial support [for them] is provable.”
Hezbollah is usually most visible in Germany during the annual anti-Semitic al-Quds Day parade in Berlin where activists are regularly seen waving the Hezbollah flag.
Berlin mayor Michael Müller said last month that he would consider legal action against the march which he called the “hate-driven al-Quds Day march”.
The whole of Hezbollah – literally translated as the “Party of Allah” – is proscribed in France, Israel, the Netherlands, the U.S., Canada, Bahrain, and by the Arab League.
Germany, like the UK, only proscribes the militant wing of Hezbollah – a distinction the Lebanese Shia terror organisation itself does not make – meaning the terror group can exploit the loophole to march and meet under the guise of its “political” wing.
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.