German Politician Says Mosques Should Come under State Control
Volker Kauder, who heads the conservative parliamentary grouping in Germany’s lower house, used his twitter account air his views on controlling mosques and "radical imams”.
That drew an immediate response from some critics of the idea, Euronews reported.
Unrealistic and useless was the view of the Die Welt newspaper.
But Kauder says that Germany was constituted as a secular state and that sermons delivered in some mosques do not conform with that concept.
The Berliner Zeitung newspaper on Friday quoted him as saying religion does not stand above the state, but rather the state over religion.
Kauder’s remarks came just before a meeting of the right-wing Alternative for Germany party, which has drafted an anti-Islamic manifesto.
Some analysts see his remarks as an attempt win back voters from the AfD.
Germany is home to around four million Muslims.
