Germany’s Main Mosque Network Under Fire Over Speakers Accused of Antisemitic Incitement

Germany’s main mosque association is facing growing controversy over speakers scheduled for its Cultural Days, a public program of community events, as experts warn of antisemitic incitement on a public stage and call for the event to be canceled.

Organized by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) in Hamburg, a city in northern Germany, the event is being advertised as a family-friendly gathering.

However, political figures, Jewish community representatives, and experts have sharply condemned the event, warning it risks providing a platform for antisemitic rhetoric and raising serious concerns over its tone and messaging.

Under mounting political pressure, DITIB was forced to remove four of the six speakers from the program, citing their hateful rhetoric and the promotion of antisemitic narratives.

“Those who act within our communities must not be associated with positions that express antisemitism, glorify violence, show hostility toward individuals, or incite hatred,” the association wrote in a statement.

Yet the controversy continues, as the event still advertises two remaining speakers who have drawn sustained criticism.

According to German author Eren Güvercin, a vocal critic of political Islam in the country, the two remaining speakers — Furkan Tiraşçı and Mahmut Sağır — have also been accused on social media of posting antisemitic content and glorifying terrorist organizations, raising questions over why they should be allowed to participate.

In several posts, Tiraşçı has repeatedly downplayed or justified the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and referred to deceased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a “martyr.”

“He was a good Muslim, a good mujahid, a good family man. My condolences to the Muslim community. Every martyrdom is a new beginning on the path to victory,” Tiraşçı wrote in a post on X at the time of Haniyeh’s death.

He has also repeatedly shared antisemitic caricatures, including depictions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with vampire fangs and blood, labeled “killer,” as well as photomontages comparing Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler or placing him in Nazi-era imagery.

As for the second guest, Sağır has been accused of glorifying Hamas leaders and describing the Israeli population as a “cursed community” that has “drowned the world in blood for centuries” — remarks that echo decades-old antisemitic tropes. The quote appears to refer directly to Jews, as the modern state of Israel was only established in 1948.

According to Güvercin, Sağır “shares content that goes far beyond legitimate criticism and delves deeply into hateful ideologies.”

#DITIB–#Bergedorf feiert vom 14. – 17. Mai auf dem Frascatiplatz ihr 40-jähriges Bestehen.
Nachdem ich öffentlich darauf hingewiesen habe, dass vier namhafte Referenten, die aus der Türkei für dieses Fest eingeflogen werden sollten, immer wieder mit antisemitischen Aussagen und… pic.twitter.com/9Kc517ztxY

— Eren Güvercin (@erenguevercin) May 4, 2026

In an Instagram post following Haniyeh’s death, Sağır wrote: “May the Lord receive him into His mercy, may his place be in paradise and his rank be elevated. The fate of those who thrive on cruelty is bleak and will be so. If not today, then tomorrow God will bring about the means to exact this reckoning. We believe it, and we bear witness.”

In the past, DITIB has faced multiple controversies, with some members making antisemitic remarks and spreading hateful messages.

Last year, the German government urged DITIB to publicly break with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, citing the association’s close ties to him.

According to local reports, German authorities told religious leaders to formally break with Erdogan’s hateful statements or risk losing government support and cooperation.

For years, the German government has supported DITIB in training imams, as well as helping to foster community programs and religious initiatives.

Most of these religious leaders are trained abroad — especially in Turkey — and brought to local mosques by large Muslim organizations on multi‑year contracts, shaping the religious education and messaging that reaches the community.

Now, German lawmakers and the country’s Jewish community are calling for a mandatory certification process for all imams amid a surging wave of antisemitism, including multiple cases of religious leaders promoting anti-Jewish violence.

In 2023, the German government signed an agreement with the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and DITIB for a new imam training program.

By sending imams from Turkey and paying their salaries, the Diyanet oversees DITIB and its hundreds of communities across Germany, shaping the ideological direction of more than 900 mosques and influencing the training of their imams.

However, a new program has brought an end to this practice of sending imams directly from Turkey. Instead, Turkish students are trained in Germany in cooperation with the German Islam Conference (IKD).

With this new agreement, imams live permanently in German communities and have no formal ties to the Turkish government. Still, experts doubt that this alone will curb the Diyanet’s political influence.