As of: March 26, 2024, 8:38 a.m
By: Christoph Klaucke
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Excitement about Antonio Rüdiger before the 2024 European Championship. The German national player and the DFB are taking action against a journalist.
It's about a photo from Ramadan.
Berlin – National player Antonio Rüdiger and the German Football Association (DFB) are taking legal action against a journalist.
As the SID confirmed from both sides, Rüdiger filed a criminal complaint with the Berlin public prosecutor's office, and the DFB also reported the case to the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) of the Frankfurt/Main Public Prosecutor's Office.
Bild
first
reported about it.
Rüdiger and DFB file criminal charges against journalists
Rüdiger feels vilified and slandered for an Instagram photo at the beginning of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
The SID has submitted his criminal complaint to the Berlin public prosecutor's office: It relates to allegations of insult or slander, inflammatory insults and incitement to hatred.
When asked, the Real Madrid professional initially did not want to comment.
The national team will play against the Netherlands on Tuesday (8.45 p.m. / all TV information can be found here) in Frankfurt/Main in the run-up to the 2024 European Championship.
As
Bild
reports, it's about a photo that the devout Muslim shared on social media on March 11th.
Rüdiger sits on a prayer rug in a white robe, the index finger of his right hand pointing to the sky.
“May the Almighty accept our fasting and our prayers,” wrote Rüdiger on the photo and wished all Muslims in the world a blessed Ramadan.
National player Antonio Rüdiger takes action against a journalist.
© Wunderl/Imago
Rüdiger and DFB take action against journalists
Bild
further writes that the journalist Julian Reichelt is said to have commented on Rüdiger's post on Platform X on Sunday
.
With these statements, the former
Bild
editor-in-chief brought the national player close to terrorists, it is said.
The newspaper also received mail from Rüdiger's lawyers.
According to Bild,
in the letter they “warn”
against “inflammatory statements to the detriment of our client”.
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Reichelt stuck to his assessment of Rüdiger's gesture on Monday evening and also explained on
(...) What Antonio Rüdiger and the DFB are using here are intimidation methods.”
Antonio Rüdiger defends himself against allegations
According to his law firm, Rüdiger is “as a convinced believer, a peace-loving person” who rejects any kind of violence.
To interpret the gesture as an “Islamist greeting” is “wrong, shortened and deliberately polarizing.”
It is the Tawheed gesture, which essentially means: “There is no god but Allah”.
According to Bild
, the Federal Ministry of the Interior explained that
, from its point of view, the raised finger “should be understood as a confession of faith and should therefore be classified as unproblematic with regard to public safety.
This applies regardless of the fact that Islamist groups appropriate this symbol and misuse it for their own purposes.”
In certain contexts, pointing the finger could be seen as a sign of Salafist or Islamist radicalization if actors consciously use this ambiguity.
“This depends on the individual case consideration,” the ministry continued.
(ck/sid/dpa)