German politician wants an 'Islam law' to prevent foreign financing of mosques

(Photo: © Peter Kenny / Ecumenical News)Muslim woman with daughter walks down a street in Berlin, Germany on Aug. 27, 2016.

A key member of a partner in Germany's ruling coalition has called for an "Islam law" to prevent foreign financing of mosques as he says "political Islam" undermines integration in the country.

Andreas Scheuer, the Christian Social Union's general secretary, has said in an interview with Die Welt newspaper that "political Islam" undermines efforts to integrate people in Germany.

He spoke to the newspaper at a time of polarizing views on immigration in Europe and the arrival of mainly Muslim refugees.

Scheuer said financing of mosques or Islamic kindergartens from foreign countries, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, must be stopped, the UK's Independent newspaper reported.

He also said "all imams must be trained in Germany and share our fundamental values."

The CSU is any ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union which share power with the Social Democratic Party in a grand coalition.

"It can't be the case that other, sometimes extreme, moral concepts, are imported from abroad," Scheuer was quoted as saying.

"German must become the language of the mosques," he noted, arguing: "Europe must cultivate its own Islam."

Event before the arrival in 2016 of more than a million asylum seekers from the Muslim world, Germany had the largest Muslim population in the E.U., numbering 4.8 million as of 2010, Time magazine reports.

By comparison, France, has slightly fewer Muslims with 4.7 million, but it has faced many more problems with extremism.

There have been at least six deadly Islamist attacks in France since 2012, killing a total of 160 people including the 130 killed in Paris in November, when extremists from Daesh, or ISIS as it is also called, caused mayhem in the city.

Scheuer suggested in his Welt interview that those who do not properly integrate could be deported.

"Whoever does not integrate themselves cannot stay here," he said.

"We must stop with this integration romance. Multiculturalism has failed. Whoever is not integrated must deal with leaving this country."

The Independent reported that last year, Austria banned foreign funding for mosques and imams, while several politicians have called for such a ban in France.

Earlier in 2016, three universities in Germany closed Muslim prayer rooms, drawing accusations of discrimination.

Since 2006, a number of federal states in Germany have introduced legislation prohibiting head-scarves for teachers.

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