German Far right party calls for bans on mosque minarets and women wearing Niqabs in public

Germany’s regional elections is planning broad new policies designed to crack down on Islamic practices

The far right party which made huge gains in Germany’s regional elections is planning broad new policies designed to crack down on Islamic practices.

Among the measures Alternative for Germany (AfD) hopes to ratify bans on mosque minarets, women wearing Niqab in public and the Jewish and Muslim practice of male circumcision.

The strong gains made by the anti-immigration party in three German state elections last Sunday stunned Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party.

Beatrix von Storch, a leading party member,told The Sunday Times: “We address problems that affect people: migration, internal security, Islam. We are the only ones that want to stop this.Must we give up our culture because people from other cultures come to us? I think not – we think not.”

It emerged last week that German magazine Compact, which adopts the AfD views, has seen a rise in popularity as it shares the party’s ideology.

Some of its recent headlines include Asylum Chaos, Dictatorship Merkel, Vote Her Out, The Better Chancellor – a reference to AfD co-leader FraukePetry – and Fair Game Woman, an allusion to sexual assaults by North African migrants.