11/18/2023 8:17 pm (current 11/18/2023 8:20 pm)
German Interior Minister asks for clarification ©APA/dpa
Following appearances by a senior Afghan Taliban official at a mosque in Cologne and the Netherlands, it is unclear how the man managed to enter Europe. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser asked for clarification. “The appearance of the Taliban representative in Cologne is completely unacceptable and must be strongly condemned,” the politician told the German Press Agency in Berlin on Saturday. “No one is allowed to offer a platform to Islamic radicals in Germany.”
Abdul Bari Omar performed at a mosque in Cologne-Chorweiler on Thursday. The umbrella organization DITIB initially named the organizing association as “Afghan Cultural Association Meschenich Colony”. The club then declared that it was not involved in the event and that the club’s name had been misused. DITIB then corrected its information on Saturday night. In fact, the hall was made available to people known to DITIB as the board of directors of the “Kulturverein der Kunar Jugend eV” and who acted on its behalf.
Omar was previously present in The Hague at a World Health Organization (WHO) conference held from 6 to 8 November. Health Minister Ernst Kuipers announced on Saturday via platform X (Twitter) that he is now being investigated how this was possible. The Dutch Health Minister also took a photo with the Taliban representative at the conference. The photo had already been distributed on Kuipers and regretted the photo together. He didn’t know who he was. “Of course, I do not want to be associated in any way with this terrible regime: I defend human rights and especially women’s rights.”
Faeser emphasized: The Taliban are responsible for massive human rights violations. “In Germany, we protect many refugees from Afghanistan from the oppressive Taliban regime. This is why the Taliban responsible have absolutely no place in Germany.” The responsible authorities investigated the case intensively. The umbrella organization DITIB, to which the Cologne mosque belongs, is expected to provide “a complete and very quick explanation of how the apparition in Cologne came about”.
The German Foreign Ministry (AA) strongly condemned Omar’s appearance on Friday. The trip was not announced to the AA and the man did not receive a visa before entering Germany. When questioned on Saturday, the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of the Interior said the man was the head of the food and medicinal authorities in Afghanistan.
The State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia also condemned the appearance of the Taliban officer. “The fact that members of a radical organization like the Taliban spread their ideologies without filters on German soil is an indescribable event,” a spokesperson told “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. However, the Düsseldorf Ministry of the Interior referred on Saturday to an assessment by the Federal Prosecutor General: According to this, the Taliban, with the seizure of power in Afghanistan and the formation of a government in September 2021, are no longer a criminal or terrorist organization. “from this point forward.”