Korans for Everyone!

Ibrahim Abu Nagie is a Palestinian Islamic radical living in Germany. He is spearheading a campaign to give out 25 million German-language Korans, so that all non-Muslims in Germany might become familiar with the word of Allah.

Nagie is a member of a Wahhabist organization that is already being monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany.

Many thanks to Hermes for translating this German news video, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


A more recent report in English is available here.

Hermes has arranged the video transcript in article format:

The so-called Salafists want to hand out 25 million Korans to people all over German-speaking territory, an activity which has caused quite a stir in the whole country, mostly because the man who promoted this action has been for years under scrutiny by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Critics of this initiative speak out mainly not against the distribution, because it comes under the freedom of religion.

What many are concerned about is the radical nature of Salafism, Islam Scholar Ralf Gathban says: “The Salafists... this is the other name for the Wahhabis. This is the Wahhabi branch, a totalitarian ideology with fascist elements, which divides mankind into two groups: the good and the bad. The good are the Muslim believers and the bad are the rest of mankind, and this latter group must be proselytized, or conquered, or even killed. These are the given options. And even when they affirm here in Germany that they oppose terrorism and so on, the ideological background is there, and it does not rule out that one of their followers might eventually drift and engage in terrorist activities, something which has already happened.”

Ibrahim Abu Nagie is a preacher in Cologne. The Palestinian-born is believed to be an influential exponent of Salafism, that branch of Islam known to be a very conservative and radical one. With the campaign called “Read!”, in which he establishes as goal the distribution of German translations of the Koran to non-Muslims, Salafists push forward to this day an unprecedented campaign of proselytization. Anybody can order a Koran in through this website, copies have been distributed for weeks now at info stalls in many German towns. Mutlu Guenal, Abu Nagie’s advocate, cannot understand the preoccupations of the administration.

“I give you the example of Petra Pau, the vice president of the German Federal Parliament. She is also being monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This is also something exaggerated. I can’t figure out why is Mr. Abu Nagie being monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Perhaps it is that some people must be given some work to do.”

Some journalists have already made critical reports about the effort to distribute Korans, which resulted in the appearance on internet of a video in which a reporter from the Frankfurter Rundschau and from Tagesspiegel were identified by their names and publicly threatened by Salafists.

The cases already made known will be subject to preliminary penal proceedings, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

The ministry takes very seriously the Salafist efforts. It was absolutely not acceptable that journalists were threatened, and press freedom was obstructed.

However, the Interior Ministry makes distinction between the necessary surveillance of radical Salafist Islamists, and the distribution of free copies of the Koran, which comes under the freedom of religion.