Cologne, Germany:The German government has strongly condemned the presence of a Taliban official, Abdul Bari Omar, at a mosque in Cologne. Abdul Bari Omar, associated with the Taliban-run health authority in Afghanistan, attended a conference organized by an Afghan association in the city.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser voiced her disapproval, stating, “The appearance of a representative of the Taliban in Cologne is completely unacceptable and must be strongly condemned. No one should offer radicals a platform in Germany.”
Faeser has called on Ditib, the Turkish-Islamic association managing the mosque in the Chorweiler district, to provide explanations regarding how the room was used for this purpose.
Ditib’s management expressed that they had no prior knowledge of the Taliban official’s planned appearance. In a statement, they mentioned, “Contrary to the original contract, it was transformed into a political event, and a speaker who was not known to us had been invited.” Ditib distanced itself from any association, even spiritual, with the Taliban.
The foreign ministry noted that the Taliban official did not possess a visa to enter Germany. However, he managed to travel to the country using a Schengen visa issued by a neighboring country, according to the ministry. Reports suggest that Abdul Bari Omar arrived from the Netherlands, where he had participated in a World Health Organization conference in early November.
Since the Taliban regained power in August 2021, the West has frozen billions of dollars in aid and assets, creating an unprecedented fiscal shock to Afghanistan’s aid-dependent economy.
Ditib, known as the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, stands as one of the largest Islamic organizations in Germany.
By AFP
