Bekir Alboğa, the Secretary-General for Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB), stated in an interview that some imams who work at the mosques in Germany conducted spying activities in Germany, and relayed information about members of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen religious order to the Turkish government.
Alboğa explained that the written instructions of the Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey in order to gather information about the Gülen religious order did not address DİTİB, but “some imams misunderstood the instructions and took action based on it." He said, "We are extremely sorry about this situation, and we also contacted the Directorate of Religious Affairs.”
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany, on the other hand, commented on the issue that the Turkish government’s influence on DİTİB had immensely increased recently, and that “made the autonomy of DİTİB questionable as a religious association.”
A meeting on the issue in question was also held between DİTİB’s representatives and the government of Western Rhine-Westphalia on Wednesday. In the statement following the meeting, the government of Western Rhine-Westphalia remarked that whether the current disputes in Turkey are ethnic, religious, or political, they were worried that those might spring up among Turkish-Germans. The government also expressed that they would continue their cooperation with the Union, but expect the Union to demonstrate a clear attitude towards soothing the tension and supporting freedom of thought.
