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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDF #0019/01 1281519
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081519Z MAY 09
FM AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0203
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHDF/AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF 0219

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSSELDORF 000019 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KISL GM
SUBJECT: LEADERSHIP CHANGES IN GERMAN MUSLIM COUNCIL; LITTLE PROGRESS 
ON AGENDA 
 
DUSSELDORF 00000019  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Concluding his six-month rotating leadership 
of Germany's Muslim Coordination Council (KRM), spokesman Erol 
Puerlue called for patience in judging its work.  He said it was 
a challenge to deliver tangible results, partly because of 
differences within the KRM but also because the policy changes 
Muslims seek from the German state are politically difficult to 
achieve.  During his tenure, Puerlue made little progress on his 
priority, religious education.  Several senior Muslims have told 
us recently the KRM is "ineffective" in large part because three 
of its four constituent groups (DITIB, Association of Islamic 
Cultural Centers (VIKZ), and Islam Council (IRD)) can do little 
without instructions from their headquarters in Turkey.  One 
senior KRM member attributed most of the difficulties to the 
German state, which he alleged was systematically blocking 
progress, while another senior leader laid most of the blame on 
DITIB, which he claimed has little interest in the emergence of 
an alternate power center.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
Last Six Months Show More Patience Needed 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
 
 
¶2.  (U) Reflecting on their term at the helm of the KRM, former 
VIKZ Secretary General Erol Puerlue and other VIKZ leaders told 
Poloff recently that they made modest progress over the last six 
months, but that patience was necessary on their agenda. 
Puerlue expressed satisfaction that the KRM had become more 
institutionalized during his tenure, moving into its own longer 
term office space in Cologne and thus no longer requiring the 
group's secretariat to rotate between the headquarters of the 
four constituent organizations.  He considered his other main 
accomplishment the scheduling of an internal conference on 
Muslim religious instruction in German schools that took place 
under KRM sponsorship in late April (and that was closed to 
outside observers). 
 
 
 
¶3.  (U) Puerlue and the VIKZ leadership expressed satisfaction 
that construction of the new DITIB central mosque project in 
Cologne would begin soon.  Demolition of the DITIB headquarters 
building, on whose grounds the mosque will be built, began April 
24 with its offices moved to a neighboring street.  Tents have 
been erected near the site to accommodate some activities that 
took place at the DITIB complex.  All building permits have long 
been issued and the cornerstone is likely to be laid by June. 
The estimated construction time will be about two years.  The 
VIKZ leaders pointed out that wherever possible they prefer 
mosques without minarets, the height of which was a major source 
of controversy in the Cologne case. 
 
 
 
Other KRM leaders comment 
 
------------------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) We have heard several other inside views of the KRM 
and its work recently.  One senior member told CG that DITIB had 
become the major hindrance to the group's work, as it continues 
to resist signing a key document without which the KRM cannot 
become a partner for state governments (which have legal 
responsibility for education matters in Germany).  He had 
originally thought that coordination with Diyanet in Ankara was 
the problem, but after two years passed and a DITIB signature 
remains outstanding, he reluctantly concluded that its leaders 
do not wish to allow the KRM to become too influential. 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) A member of the government-sponsored German Islam 
Conference with excellent insights into the Turkish community 
recently gave us a similar view of the KRM.  He noted that three 
of the KRM's four constituent organizations, DITIB, VIKZ and 
IRD, have a primarily Turkish membership and are controlled by 
religious and/or political groups in Turkey.  He maintained that 
the leaders of these organizations in Germany, and by extension 
the KRM, do not have real power and cannot make any real 
decisions or innovations on integration issues in general or 
more specific issues, such as Islamic religious instruction at 
public schools. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) He lamented that the most powerful DITIB 
 
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representatives in Germany do not speak German and have only 
limited understanding of German views on Islam and German 
society more broadly.  At Diyanet headquarters, DITIB leaders do 
not devote the time and resources necessary to make the 
organization play the leadership role it could.  IRD, VIKZ and 
the Central Council of Muslims (ZMD) were much better plugged 
into German society, but are small in comparison and have been 
involved in controversies over the last two years.  He was 
therefore pessimistic about the KRM's ability to emerge as the 
kind of spokesman for German Muslims that its leaders wish. 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The spokesman of another KRM group recently offered 
the least favorable explanation of the lack of progress in 
religious education, attributing it to an unwillingness by some 
German state-level authorities to accept Islam as a fully equal 
religion with Christianity and Judaism.  In an April 24 
conversation with CG, the leader expressed serious annoyance 
that the process of enabling children to learn about Islam in 
German schools was taking so long.  He claimed that many of the 
issues raised by the NRW government were legalistic and that 
other German states had approached the issue in a more pragmatic 
manner.  His overall assessment was an exasperated "I hope to be 
able to see religious instruction in the schools here before I 
die" (he is in his late 40s). 
 
 
 
Former KRM Spokesman Returns 
 
----------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U) On April 1, the leadership of the KRM returned to the 
ZMD, which put forward the first KRM spokesman, Ayyub Axel 
Koehler, at the group's inception in April 2007.  Koehler served 
in that capacity from April - September 2007.  A German convert 
to Islam who was once a member of the Cologne City Council for 
the Free Democratic Party (FDP), he will serve as KRM Spokesman 
until September 30, 2009.  Koehler (71) told CG on May 4 that 
his priority for his term was to make progress on religious 
education, if necessary to go forward with a Muslim-government 
Round Table as has happened in Lower Saxony, which he 
characterized as significantly further along than NRW, once the 
most progressive state in Germany in terms of how it deals with 
integration and Islam issues.  He thought the NRW government 
would be open to this approach because it has precedent in other 
states, although expected resistance. 
 
 
 
Comment 
 
------------ 
 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) With new office space and two years of experience 
talking and negotiating with the German government, the KRM may 
become more of an institution and more visible in the future, 
but results to date have been limited.  In our interaction with 
KRM leaders over the last two years, we have been struck by 
their sense of frustration that progress on their priorities has 
been slow, but their growing appreciation of why achieving their 
goals requires time.  Each KRM constituent has a different 
perspective, with DITIB and Islam Council more inclined to 
attribute the slow progress primarily to German unwillingness to 
accord Islam the same legal status as Christianity and Judaism, 
while several senior ZMD leaders tend to see the problem as much 
or more in the influence Turkey exercises over DITIB, Islamrat 
and VIKZ.  The VIKZ may be in between, with an appreciation of 
both positions.  The VIKZ and ZMD have been the most 
communicative with us, the former probably in part because of 
its strong desire for acceptance after having faced alleged 
financial malfeasance issues and charges of indoctrinating youth 
via its network of boarding schools, and the latter out of a 
desire to reinforce its support for the German constitutional 
order and to dispel lingering mistrust about its motives.  VIKZ 
presents itself as moderate and independent of influence from 
Turkey, although we also hear other views. 
 
 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Koehler remains an influential force in the German 
Muslim communities because he is an ethnic German with political 
experience and can navigate easily between the German 
government, society, and the Muslim groups.  His failing health 
and advanced age, however, may limit his effectiveness.  Some 
observers believe ZMD is increasingly influenced by younger 
 
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leaders associated with Secretary General Aiman Mazyek or with 
the eminence grise Ibrahim El-Zayat, who is suspected by the 
Office of the Protection of the Constitution of having been 
involved in money laundering and serving as a Muslim Brotherhood 
representative in Germany.  End Comment. 
 
 
 
¶11.  (U) This message was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
BOYSE