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According to AFD Party Islam is Not Compatible with German Constitution | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An election poster of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD) party is pictured in the town of Stoessen.


BERLIN, April 17 – According to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), Islam and the German constitution are not compatible together, and accordingly AFD vowed to press for bans on minarets and burqas at its party congress in 2 weeks.

The AfD punished Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats in three regional elections last month over migrants policy, profiting from worrisome about how Germany could cope with a flood of migrants, noting that over a million arrived last year.

AFD deputy leader Beatrix Storch told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that Islam itself is a political ideology that is not compatible with the constitution. Storch added that the are in favor of a ban on minarets, on muezzins and a ban on full veils, noting that he is a member of the European Parliament.

Full body covering worn by some Muslim women was also part of the statement, as Merkel’s conservatives have also called for an effective ban on the burqa and that it should not be worn in public, however they have not mentioned or said that Islam is incompatible with Germany’s constitution.

The AfD’s rise, timing with strong support by other European anti-immigrant parties like the National Front in France, has punctured the centrist consensus around which the mainstream parties have formed alliances in Germany.

The party’s rise has been controversial. Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, has said Germany’s far-right, led by the AfD party, is using language similar to that of Hitler’s Nazis, however alike accusations have not converted the party from its anti-immigration course.

Alexander Gauland, who leads the AfD in Brandenburg, said “Islam is not a religion like Catholic or Protestant Christianity, but rather intellectually always associated with the takeover of the state”.

“That is why the Islamisation of Germany is a danger,” he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.