Protesters call for Islamic state in Germany

Muslim Interaktiv, a group under investigation by Hamburg’s domestic intelligence for “extremism”, has grown to 24,000 followers on TikTok. Leader Boateng calls himself “Raheem Boateng” online and posts videos explaining why homosexuality is a sin.

The group had previously organised a demonstration of 3,500 people against the public burning of the Koran in Sweden in February last year, and held an anti-Israel demonstration following the Hamas attacks on October 7.

Speaking earlier this month, Andy Grote, the Hamburg interior senator from the Social Democratic Party, singled out Muslim Interaktiv as he called for “hard and decisive action” to be taken against Islamic extremists.

Lamya Kaddor, a Green MP, described the group as “not only very dangerous, but also a completely marginal group among Germany’s Muslims” that have taken advantage “of the Gaza issue”. 

Volker Beck, the president of the German-Israeli Society, asked why the group had not been banned for their connections with Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The calls for the government to take action against the group comes as politicians have been reluctant to soften support for Israel despite other world leaders saying that its army has been too aggressive in its war in Gaza and has caused a humanitarian disaster.

Germany has been accused of suppressing free speech and imperilling democracy with bans on protests since October 7.

Yanis Varoufakis, the outspoken former Greek finance minister, and Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor who was in Gaza for the first few months of the war, said Germany risked damaging its reputation internationally.

Mr Varoufakis’s lawyer said he has documents that show his client has been banned from Germany after he was due to speak at a pro-Palestine congress in Berlin that was cancelled by authorities.

The German ambassador to Pakistan was greeted by protests on Saturday, with demonstrators “shocked by the audacity that you are here to talk about civil rights while your country is brutally abusing the people speaking for the rights of the Palestinians”.

Earlier this month Nicaragua asked the UN’s International Court of Justice to stop German weapons sales to Israel, claiming Berlin had breached the UN genocide convention with its supply of arms.