Protest Call 2003

Public Call against the Al-Quds-demonstration in Berlin on 22 November, 2003

After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini declared the last Friday of Ramadan the "International Day of Al-Quds" (the Arab name of Jerusalem) and called Muslims all over the World to hold demonstrations on this day. Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in 1999 explained the meaning of the Al-Quds-rallies: "From an Islamic, human, economic, security and (general) political point of view, the existence of Israel is a mighty threat to the peoples and states of the region. And there is only one solution to solve the problem in the Middle East, this is the destruction and annihilation of the Zionist state."

Since 1995, also in Germany thousands of people follow this call every year, and gather on the following Saturday for their central demonstration. They don't celebrate a religious holiday, as some intercultural calendars are suggesting. They come together for a day of political struggle, for which the ruling Mullahs in Iran are calling upon in the name of Islam.

The international Al-Quds-rallies are coordinated in Iran and organized by local Islamic centres and organizations allied with the Islamic Republic. In Germany, this is the “Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg” and the Hizbullah, both being under surveillance by the secret service [Verfassungsschutz]. For Islamists of different nationalities, the Al-Quds-demonstration in Berlin is the central public march-up-event, on which they claim the destruction of Israel and demonstrate their solidarity with the Iranian Mullah regime and with Islamic terror groups throughout the world. "Dear Christians, be careful, Zionists have power here", "Zionists want to buy the world with stolen money", "Israel doesn’t know any shame, but the Islam will be victorious", the demonstrators are shouting in the streets of Berlin since 1995, without having been criticized publicly. It would be a scandal, if this aggressively demonstrated anti-Semitism and this threat of destruction against Israel would be ignored or even accepted anymore. The anti-Semitic Islamists’ political challenge to the existence of Israel is also a challenge to the equal coexistence of Muslims, Jews and Christians in this country! Thus, our political fight against Islamists is also directed against any Racist discrimination of Muslims. It includes the demand of equal social and political rights for all immigrants in Germany as well.

The supporters of this call have quite different views of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, but we are united in the stand up for the secure existence of the Jewish state and the desperate hope for a early peaceful solution for all people in the Middle East - a hope that again and again is destroyed by Islamic terror groups and the Iranian leadership out of anti-Semitic hatred and strategic calculation. Therefore, we express our solidarity with the courageous Iranian student and democracy movement and with all Muslims in the world, who oppose those Islamic powers. We hope that this year, the Al-Quds-demonstration in Berlin will face severe criticism from all parts of the society.