German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has said that the German Islam Conference should redefine its role after participants complained about the conference’s agenda.
De Maiziere said in an interview on Wednesday with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he did not think the conference should be repeated after criticising the event. He said, instead of focusing on racism and Islamophobia, it should focus on security concerns and Islamist extremism.
De Maiziere said he will invite Islamic organizations for a pre-interview, to discuss their expectation from the conference. He stated “if we decide to display another conference, we don’t need to title it as “Islam Conference.” He added “We should discuss how we can get good outcome from the conference, not who is going to attend.”
The vice chairman of the Islamic community said he was pleased to hear that De Maiziere will take the Islamic organization’s opinion on the Islamic Conference.
The German-Islam Conference was founded in 2006 by the German government and aimed to provide an official platform to discuss Muslim integration in the country such as poverty, unemployment and the poor academic performance of Muslim children.