Ditib distances himself
Taliban official gives speech in Cologne mosque
November 17, 2023, 5:11 p.m
The radical Islamic Taliban are classified as a terrorist organization in this country. Nevertheless, one of its officials can apparently solicit donations in a Cologne mosque without being bothered. The Ditib association says it made the rooms available without knowing which guests would appear.
A high-ranking member of the Taliban from Afghanistan appeared in a mosque in Cologne on Thursday. Videos on the X platform show Abdul Bari Omar, head of the country’s food and drug authority, giving a speech to an audience. In the background you can clearly see a sign with the inscription “Ditib Chorweiler eV”. The radical Islamic Taliban violently took power in Afghanistan in 2021. They are classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the USA. It is unclear how a member of the Taliban was able to enter Germany. The Turkish-Islamic Union (Ditib) distanced itself from the appearance. The rooms were simply rented to a club and they did not know that the Taliban representative was invited.
The Taliban’s press spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirms the man’s appearance in Cologne on X. “The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Abdul Bari Omar, spoke at a meeting of Afghans in Germany and answered their questions,” he writes. It was about security in Afghanistan, reconstruction and the use of “capital for the development of the country”. The latter probably means collecting donations.
“A new level of escalation”
Civan Akbulut, a member of the Essen City Integration Council, writes about the video on This is a new level of escalation. “The Ditib association must now be finally broken up, the ringleaders arrested and the Turkish religious attachés expelled,” said Akbulut.
The Turkish-Islamic Union (Ditib) is the largest Sunni-Islamic organization in Germany and reports directly to the Turkish government. More than 900 local associations belong to the association. In a statement, Ditib Chorweiler writes that the premises were rented by the “Afghan Cultural Association Cologne Meschenich” for religious purposes. “Contrary to contractual agreement, this turned into a political event to which a speaker unknown to us was invited,” it says. This represents a “blatant breach of contract”.
Ditib “learned from the press” that the speaker was “a former member of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.” “We firmly distance ourselves from the association ‘Afghanischer Kulturverein Köln Meschenich eV’, the speakers and the content of this event,” it says. The club was banned from entering the building.