Right-wing says: Islam is not part of Germany and there should be ban on Muslims’ minarets

Delegates from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have backed an election manifesto which slams Islam as incompatible with the country’s constitution and calls for a ban on Islamic symbols.

Delegates from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have backed an election manifesto which slams Islam as incompatible with the country’s constitution and calls for a ban on Islamic symbols.

“Islam is foreign to Germany, it cannot invoke the principle of religious freedom to the same degree as Christianity,” Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, an AfD lawmaker from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said to loud applause on the second day of the party congress in the southern German city of Stuttgart on Sunday.

The manifesto which the party is now putting forward has a section dubbed ‘Islam is not part of Germany,’ twisting a phrase often used by Chancellor Merkel, who said on many occasions that Islam belongs to Germany and that freedom of religion for all is guaranteed by the country’s constitution.