As of: January 30, 2024, 12:35 p.m
By: Tom Otto
Comments
Press
Split
According to the wishes of the Turkish-Islamic community of Memmingen, the existing mosque on Schlachthofstrasse was to receive an approximately 24 meter high minaret on the corner of Kühlhausstrasse.
Both the building committee and the city council plenum have so far voted against the building application.
© Tom Otto
After the building committee of the Memmingen city council had already rejected a building application from the Turkish-Islamic community of Memmingen for a minaret on the site of the mosque on Wednesday of the previous week (January 24, 2024) with a tied vote, the city council plenum should now meet on Monday (29). January 2024) will deal with the process again.
Memmingen -
Mayor Jan Rothenbacher considered the construction project to be generally approved according to the building code and, after a long discussion, had the city council vote on it again.
Vain;
Because with a vote of 20 to 20, there was once again no majority for the construction of the minaret.
With large parts of the CSU, CRB, Free Democrats and Free Voters as well as two votes from the ÖDP faction and the two AfD city council members, the minaret opponents finally prevailed.
Despite recommendation: building application rejected by building committee
The head of the city planning office, Uwe Weißfloch, had already explained to the building committee that the “requirement of consideration” in the minaret building application had not been violated.
Despite the requested height of 24 meters, the planned minaret does not serve as a model for the local commercial area.
It was also clarified that both calls to prayer and loudspeaker systems on the tower were not permitted.
The city's integration advisory board and the design advisory board also recommended that the building committee approve the application.
However, since the vote in the building committee was 7 to 7, the building application for the minaret was considered rejected.
It was also notable that the AfD is not represented at all on the building committee, meaning that an alliance of minaret opponents from the other parties had already prevailed the previous week.
Under the slogan “NO to the minaret in Memmingen,” the AfD called for a rally on the market square before the city council meeting.
© Elisabeth Hütter
Before the plenary session: AfD rally and counter-demonstration on the market square
With the renewed treatment of the building application in the plenary session of the city council at the beginning of the week, most observers now expected a majority in favor of the planned minaret construction.
On the same day, the AfD mobilized against it with a rally on the market square.
Less than 50 meters away, twice as many people demonstrated against the rally and for the construction of the minaret.
The AfD rally and counter-demonstration were certainly also a reason why an unusually large number of spectators followed the city council meeting.
A good 50 guests, both supporters and opponents of the minaret, found space in the Maximilian Kolbe House.
Some even had to be turned away because of overcrowding.
At the same time, a counter-demonstration was formed under the motto “No stage for right-wing extremists”.
© Elisabeth Hütter
Mayor Jan Rothenbacher made it clear at the beginning of the meeting that the building law aspect had to be separated from the content-political consideration of the matter.
He recalled the oath of office he took almost a year ago, according to which he must behave in his work independently of ideological or religious considerations.
My news
Ottobeuren: Large quantities of narcotics seized
Deployed 72 times: Read a “stormy” year 2023 for the Dettingen fire department
That was “Swabia white-blue” 2024read
“Never again is now”: Memmingen unites at demonstration against right-wing extremism
The babies of the week at the Memmingenlesen Clinic
“Never again is now”: Rally against the right in Memmingenlesen
Voices from the city council: This is how the individual factions justify their decision
Horst Holas, parliamentary group leader of the CSU-FDP community,
initially spoke out in favor of free exercise of religion, but emphasized the concerns in society that a minaret has great significance for political Islam.
A minaret means “the rule of Allah over all others”.
Such a tower is not absolutely necessary for the practice of religion, but it brings unrest and lack of understanding among the population.
The Turkish-Islamic community should therefore reconsider their building application.
The majority of his parliamentary group will not agree to the proposal.
Michael Hartge from the ÖDP
spoke of a “bad gut feeling”, but construction law takes precedence over gut feeling.
He revealed that the ÖDP could not come to an agreement: the two older city council members were for more consideration and against the minaret, the two younger ÖDP city councilors were for it.
He wanted to vote against the current building application and demanded a smaller minaret.
The
SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Reßler
urgently demanded that building law be adhered to.
According to Article 3 of the Basic Law, all people are equal before the law, therefore a substantive and political assessment of building projects by city councils should not have any influence on legal decisions.
This principle is essential for the common good.
In addition, the Turkish-Islamic community in Memmingen has always appeared as a non-political religious community.
Gottfried Voigt from the Free Voters
criticized the controversial discussion and suggested a reduced height of the minaret as a compromise.
Christoph Maier from the AfD
emphasized that a minaret is always a sign of “land grabbing” by Islam and means “Islam rules here”.
The DITIP, to which the Turkish-Islamic community in Memmingen belongs, is the extended arm and anchor of the authoritarian Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan.
It is clear to the AfD that there should be no minaret, not even one smaller than the one planned.
Rupert Reisinger, leader of the Die LINKE parliamentary group
, also advocated that legal decisions should not be made based on feeling.
He called for the rule of law and human rights, because it is not the actual or assumed majority that is the decisive factor in such a decision, but the law and order;
especially in the “city of civil liberties” that Memmingen claims as its own.
He, Natalie Riedmiller from the GREENS and SPD MP Ivo Holzinger also spoke of a generational problem that is expressed here.
The younger people would have no problems with such a minaret.
Vote after a long discussion: a tie ensures that the building application is rejected
After a long debate, the following vote resulted in a tie of 20 to 20 and thus a rejection of the building application for a minaret.
The SPD, GREEN and LEFT factions voted unanimously in favor of the building application.
Viewers who sympathized with the AfD welcomed the result.
There was disappointment among the other guests that almost all city council parties had demonstrated together for democracy, the rule of law and against racism and hatred last Saturday, and now the minaret is being swept off the table on Monday.
Further discussions and exploring possible options
Mayor Rothenbacher wants to have a lot of quiet discussions in the coming days and see what options are available.
Rothenbacher emphasized to the Memminger KURIER that now is not the time to attack each other with hot heads.
Both the building owner and the testing authority “Government of Swabia” now have the opportunity to intervene and sue against the decision.
Before doing so, however, he wanted to hold further discussions with everyone involved.
The AfD had announced a citizens' initiative against the minaret;
The mayor said that there were high hurdles to be overcome and that we also had to wait and see what and in what wording the corresponding question would be put to the vote.