Harun Nasrullah

German MPs from different political parties have slammed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on October 11 over its controversial motion demanding Qur’an ban.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) accused the AfD of distorted generalisations about Islam and stereotyping Muslims as violent.

Speaking in a Parliamentary debate, CDU MP Christoph de Vries said, “Your allegations are malicious, discriminating and also destructive. What you are trying to achieve is not social peace but discrediting Islam and its believers.”

Merkel’s coalition partner Social Democratic Party (SPD) also rejected the motion, saying that it was another attempt by the AfD to stigmatise Muslims.

“You are inciting hatred against Islam in a calculated political manoeuvre, the big majority of Muslims in this country stands for democracy, they are loyal to our country,” said SPD’s Lars Castellucci.

The opposition Left Party lawmaker Christine Buchholz said AfD’s leader Alexander Gauland was increasingly resembling Adolf Hitler.

“AfD is trying to denigrate Islam with the same methods used by anti-Semites against Jews,” she said.

Buchholz accused the AfD conducting an anti-Muslim campaign by using passages from Qur’an, which were always taken out of context. “The Left Party supports religious freedom of all people in this country,” she stressed.

The far-right AfD’s controversial motion, which was submitted to the Committee on Legal Affairs for further debate, demands the Government to take necessary measures to ban disseminating messages of the Qur’an.

The AfD scored record gains in federal elections last year and entered the Parliament for the first time.

Adopting an explicitly anti-Muslim rhetoric, the AfD argued that Germany was under the threat of “Islamisation”, especially after nearly one million refugees – mostly from Syria and Iraq – arrived in the country since 2015.