Following raids on 53 Islamic organizations, accused of propagating “extremism” and supporting Iran’s terror proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, Germany has banned the Islamic Centre of Hamburg (IZH), and shut down the iconic Imam Ali Mosque, known locally as the Blue Mosque, which is one of Germany’s oldest mosques, as well as 5 other Iran-affiliated mosques, with more likely to come.

EuroNews Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said evidence gathered in the investigation “confirmed the serious suspicions to such a degree that we ordered the ban today”.

The IZH “promotes an Islamist-extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany,” while it and its suborganisations “also support the terrorists of Hezbollah and spread aggressive anti-Semitic hate crimes,” Faeser said in a statement. Affiliated institutions in the federal states of Bremen, Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin are also being investigated.

Her ministry said that “as the direct representative of Iran’s ‘Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution,’ the IZH disseminates the ideology of the Islamic Revolution in an aggressive and militant way and seeks to bring about such a revolution in the Federal Republic of Germany.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned the German ambassador over the ban, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA. On the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the ministry called the ban “an example of Islamophobia” and a violation of freedom of expression.

The German Interior Ministry said that, while the group tries to present itself as a tolerant and purely religious organization without political ties or a political agenda, “investigations have confirmed without a doubt that the IZH’s activities are not simply religious in nature.” It said the group’s purpose and activities are opposed to Germany’s constitutional order.

The IZH has long been under observation by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, which said in its annual report for 2023 that it is Iran’s most important representative in Germany besides the country’s embassy. There have been calls for it to be banned for years. The IZH’s assets are also being confiscated. There are an estimated 150 to 200 Shiite congregations in Germany, according to the ministry, which stressed that it wasn’t acting against a religion.

The top regional security official in Hamburg, Andy Grote, declared that the group is now “history”. He said that “the closure of this outpost of the inhuman Iranian regime is a really effective hit against Islamic extremism”.

In April 2024, Islamic extremists marched in Hamburg, in support of an Islamic Caliphate which they claimed will stop German dictatorship.