Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Several young adults wearing orange reflective jackets embossed with the words “Shariah Police” began foot patrols of the central district of the German city Wuppertal, harassing who they perceived to be Muslim frequenting discos and gambling establishments.
The group held that they were promoting their Salafist beliefs and chastising others who deviated from the tenets of the religion. By consuming alcohol and engaging in gambling entertainment.
The German Federal Government reacted swiftly to the reports. Members of Angela Merkel’s coalition government immediately chastised the group and declared that the German State would not tolerate ad-hoc quasi-police patrols such as these. An Interior Ministry spokesperson told the newspaper Rheinisher Post that concerning the Shariah Police “In this way they are demonstrating that they do not recognized our law-based state.” Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands, or CDU a major German political party, Security Advisor Peter Biesenbach described the situation as an “alarm signal”.
The founder of the Shariah Police, thirty three year old Sven Lau claims the Shariah Police never existed and that the group was only a few men spending a few hours bringing attention to the issue of Sharia law in Germany.
Deutsche Welle reported Lau is a leading member of Germany’s Salafist movement, advocates of a strict Sunni interpretation of political Islam. He works with a mosque in his native Mönchengladbach, not far west of Wuppertal, and used to head the fundamentalist group “Invitation to Paradise.” (Einladung zum Paradies, in German.)
The central council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) condemned the activities. “These few teen yobs do not speak in our name,” chairman Ayman A. Mazyek told the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag newspaper. “These people are perverting the name of our religion. With this shrill and foolish action, they are really hurting Muslims.”
Authorities were notified when people complained of the Shariah Police passing out literature demanding others observe a code of conduct as well as demands that Muslims abstain from alcohol, music, dancing, pornography, prostitution, and drugs. But the matter went from there when the Shariah Police were contacted by the actual police who detained eleven of the group.
Wuppertal Police issued a statement promising to crack down on vigilantism or any other group proffering itself as a police agency.
“The state has an exclusive monopoly on the use of [police] force,” reminded local police Chief Birgitta Radermacher. “Any conduct that intimidates, provokes or makes people insecure will not be tolerated. These ‘Sharia Police’ have no legitimacy,” she added.
There have been repeated attempts, especially at night time, by members of the Salafi Islamist community to influence and recruit young people, the statement said.
The Local reported that police presence in the city center had been strengthened and citizens were urged to report sightings of the group, which has said it will expand its activities in other towns.
The group reportedly identifies itself with the Salafi movement, an ultra-conservative sub-group within Islam with a strong following in the Middle East. Most of the world’s Salafis are from Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Sven Lau has reportedly been under watch by German security agencies and law enforcement for some time. He was targeted by a prosecutor for seditious acts according to The Focus Online. Lau proffered in a television interview that he and his followers stay within the bounds of the law but that anything else is on the table. Government officials have alleged in February that Lau might be supporting, at least in advocacy, Syrian militia fighters that could be linked to ISIS.
In 2010 he declared his intent to establish a Salafi center with an Islamic School, much to the chagrin of others in the city.
Security services also believe he is tied to recruitment of jihadi sympathizers in Europe in Egypt to engage in combat within Syria.
German society, especially the government, is not going to tolerate the notion of the Shariah Police given its religious nature and alignment with a political ideal; especially given the nation’s history in the 1920’s through the 1940’s where paramilitary and parapolice organizations caused incalculable damage to their society.
Most strongly hold that the Shariah Police must be stopped before it advances further. Continuing to allow such demonstrations are likely to put a strain on Islamic relations in an increasingly mistrusting relationship of the population generally.
By Darren Smith
Sources:
Deutsche Welle
De Morgan (Flemish)
The Local
Online Focus (German)
Westdeutsche Zeitung (German) Photo Credit
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IN Norway… there are areas where there are a lot of Muslims… just as in NY there is areas with Italians and Irish.. etc… etc… etc…
A few years back, one of these kinds of Morality creeps got bent out of shape….
There were 2 GAY guys walking down the street kissing….
This ONE Muslim guy was hassling them….
an Imam came out and told the CREEP to STOP it….
The Imam apologized to the gay guys…
Later on… That Imam, offered to HOST a Gay Pride Party….
and have the Parade on the Street as the Mosque….
semby
Germany, the UK and other European countries have no one to blame but their leaders. For years they looked the other way when certain Muslim groups gained traction in their country. Little by little……….they gained a foot hole.
————————————-
REALLY???
They have been elected to Parliament ????
What kind of traction have they gained ???
I see people say that…. But, That is rather vague….
OK…. I see a WHOLE LOT of wrong in these comments…
As Rafflaw pointed out, The German authorities are taking care of it…..
AriDog….
YOU said you live in a Muslim Community???
Is that a Muslim community in AMERICA ?????
Hey, who’s more familiar with the Stasi than Germany…l
John
All men are created equal.
= = =
Dred Scott cleared that one up nicely, YES?
Westboro Baptist Church is fundamentalist…
… Mocking is their best medicine.
In America and England, the same mocking would go a long way toward these Sharia Law enforcers… “Hey, middle dude pointing that finger. I see your ankles. And nice ones, at that (*cat call whistle).”
“Video of Islamic Morality Police”
Affirmative action is exactly the same PSYCHOTIC DICTATORIAL IMPOSITION OF MORALITY.
Rent control, housing “discrimination,” welfare, “civil rights,” punitive taxation, redistribution, Obamacare, Medicare, control of the economy, quotas, allowed illegal immigration, “hate crime law,” amnesty. etc. are all the same.
The American thesis was to OPPOSE ALL OF THIS TYRANNY, OPPRESSION AND DICTATORSHIP with
UNBIASED NEUTRALITY, FREEDOM, AND SELF-RELIANCE.
All men are created equal.
Through freedom and self-reliance,
the outcomes of their lives are achieved by them.
maxcat06
The outliers like the “kill ’em or convert ’em” mentality.
Be they American Christians or Libyan Muslims.
Bailers:
They arent talking in Iraq:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=583_1400425679
My understanding is that those are ISIS punks crying like babies at their impending death. Also the pictures of the dead are apparently ISIS. It seems the Iraqi’s have been fortified by American air power and are taking it to those ISIS goat molesters.
That is how you take care of this problem. To bad the Germans dont play baseball, that is what those punks needed, a good a$$ whipping, American style, with a baseball bat.
@BarkinDog
I don’t know if you’re trying to be flip or what, but “Reopen Buchenwald” and “we might need a German American Bund” are not funny statements to this Jew. Are you suggesting we fight terrorism with terrorism?
““In this way they are demonstrating that they do not recognized our law-based state.””
No Sh*t Sherlock. But what’s going to be done about beside meaningless talk?
http://youtu.be/jz_qEbKsS7o
Happening in London too. This is exactly what happens in theocracies, not democracies. European countries need to stop this now, the populace should not tolerate it.
Police is basically an international word. The Turks would write it Polis but it would sound the same. You would permit a pastor or even a parishioner to visit another parishioner. The difference is the degree of coersion and the word police implies a lot of that.
Well they got the attention they wanted. Glad that the German government won’t allow it. Imagine if Christian pastors switched to being Morality Police & wore uniforms like that….
Aridog is a smart dude. He lives among Middle Easterners. He knows their good and bad qualities. He is a welcomed addition to our forum.
Thank you AirDog. Sharia is dangerous and these guys are dangerous. While visiting Germany I have noticed more and more women wearing the full Burqua. Two possibilities: 1. Even fundamentalists don’t want to live in countries run by fundamentalists so they have moved to Fermany. or 2. The fundamentalists in Germany are making it clear that there will be a price if the women don’t cover up! Some even wear sun glasses at night to hide ther eyes. I saw at least one women with a metal face mask. It was quite disturbing. Fundamentalist Islamists want a very different world than the rest of us and we are just too afraid or too tolerant to tell them NO. If you want to live that way, go back to countries where that is acceptable.
Saudi Arabia and other countries have morality police. They are dangerous and violent. If this kind of thing is left uncheck they will get more agressive.
@WIIIAI: Schariapolizei would make prosecution for impersonating a police officer an open and shut case, rendering it in English gives them a bit more legal wriggling room.
But it doesn’t hurt international publicity either…
Exactly, fundamentalism is a scourge. A Theocracy NEEDS fundamentalists.
annie – fundamentalists, and that includes secular humanists, create their own theocracy.
John:
Are those actual Jefferson quotes? Would you please place a link to a verifiable source like UVA or Monticello so we know some asshat didnt make it up.
Barrack Hussein Obama –
Immigration is whatever His Highness, His Excellency, King Obama decrees.