A German Muslim group unexpectedly pulled out Wednesday from planned talks with the government about the integration of Islamic values, days before discussions were to restart.
The Central Council of Muslims said the government-sponsored Islam Conference had no concrete goals and did too little to tackle Islamophobia.
“The German Islam Conference is nothing but a government-decreed forum,” said Ayyub Axel Koehler, who heads the nationwide alliance of Sunni mosques.
Koehler criticized the interior ministry for failing to address any of his organization’s key concerns.
The Central Council of Muslims took part in the interior ministry’s first Islam Conference, from 2006 to 2008.
However they demanded a series of changes to be implemented before discussions resumed, and complained that not enough devout Muslims were being invited to the three years of planned talks with the government.