Milli Gorus : 'Allah Has Another Plan'

STUTTGART. A simple two-story building here has caught the attention of the authorities. It houses the Baden-Württemberg office of the organization Islamic Community Milli Gorus

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In the second-floor office numerous small flags are dotted around a map marking the places where Milli Gorus runs mosques in the southern German state, although a visitor could easily think himself or herself in Turkey. Not a single German book is to be found on the shelves, and ordering a drink in German in the cafeteria, where a television reports non-stop on the U.S. military strikes against Afghanistan, proves difficult.

Milli Gorus, which means "national world vision," has a regional association in almost every German state and is headquartered in Cologne. It claims to have 500 mosque associations in Germany and 214 in the Benelux countries, France, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia, though there is no independent confirmation of these figures.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

, which monitors and combats political extremism, has had its eye on the Islamic fundamentalist organization, thought to have the largest membership base of any such group in Europe, since it was founded in 1984. The agency suspects that Milli Gorus is the European branch of the Virtue Party, which was banned in Turkey this year on grounds that it violated the country's secular constitution. The party was the successor to the Welfare Party of Necmettin Erbakan, which was likewise banned in Turkey in 1998 after Mr. Erbakan briefly served as prime minister.

The history of Milli Gorus's predecessor organizations, which are characterized by numerous name changes and competing splinter groups, stretches back to the 1970s. It says it represents the interests of immigrants and promotes the integration of Muslims in Germany, but critics are highly skeptical of the latter claim.

Thomas Lemmen, an expert on Islam who authored a study on Islamic organizations in Germany on behalf of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, said that the goal of Milli Gorus was no less than to separate Muslims from the main body of society in the West. According to Mr. Lemmen, Milli Gorus wants to exert its influence on as many Turkish people living in Germany as possible and eventually set up a Muslim theocracy which blurs the distinction between secular and religious laws.

Bavaria's interior minister, Günther Beckstein of the Christian Social Union, has accused Milli Gorus of wanting to establish its own political party in Germany or to infiltrate existing parties in order to promote its political agenda. But the group's chairman, Mehmet Erbakan, denied this.
[...]

Mr. Erbakan's view of integration is that the German state should facilitate the unrestricted proliferation of Islam, offering Islamic religious education in schools, financing the training of imams, and prescribing a building right for mosques in all development plans.

If Mr. Erbakan really is abandoning the idea of a more active role for Muslims in politics in Germany and other European countries, it would be a major change of course, for at a pan-European Milli Gorus conference in April he again called on members to take their host countries' citizenship in order to obtain the right to vote.

"Europeans only think Muslims came to earn money, but Allah has another plan," he told delegates at the gathering in Hagen, in Germany's Ruhr region, adding that Muslims should form themselves into "a strong electorate in European countries and hence acquire a degree of political power that cannot be discounted."

And at a meeting of executive committee members of the Bavarian branch a month later, he said that the main goal for 2001 was to increase Milli Gorus membership in order to encourage their politicization. "Once the majority of us are German citizens, we will also have a greater say in politics. My greatest dream is to have (Milli Gorus) members in the German parliament," Mr. Erbakan said.

The son of a German mother and Turkish engineer, he said he saw his own political future not in a Turkish, but in a German party in which he intended to "promote integration."

But the vice chairman of Milli Gorus, Yavuz Calik Karahan, has derided this strategy. It will only be possible to "establish an Islamic culture" if Muslims have their own party, he said at a regional meeting in June, adding that they could be elected to the German parliament within five years.

To do so would require at least 5 percent of the total vote, which would be conceivable, if still difficult, if more of the country's approximately 3 million Muslims (out of a total population of 82 million) took advantage of the new, more liberal citizenship law.
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Despite its banning in Turkey, the Virtue Party still finds a voice in Germany. The April issue of Yeni Dunya (New World), which has close links with Milli Gorus, included a vow to "fight for the victory of the Islamic revolution," adding that the faithful would "accept no system or regime other than the rule of the Koran."
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But Mr. Erbakan is on the defensive, especially since Lower Saxony announced last week that it was considering making an application to have Milli Gorus banned. Other Islamic organizations are on the list of Lower Saxony's interior minister, Heiner Bartling, who, like Mr. Beckstein, has state officials compiling information on these groups.

For groups found to have abetted political extremism, the existence of a religious affiliation will no longer be enough to prevent their banning once new security measures pass through the German parliament.

It remains questionable, however, whether Milli Gorus could be banned. Despite the extreme language used in the Milli Gazete magazine, which has close links to the association and defends "Islamic resistance movements" against accusations of terrorism, no one has so far been able to prove that Milli Gorus has called for violence or has otherwise violated the constitution.

While a ban might prove easier to obtain for the radical group Caliphate State, which split from Milli Gorus in 1984 and currently has around 1,100 members, accusations against Mr. Erbakan's organization are generally more mundane: that it exerts social pressure on its members, especially women, and that the programs and teaching it offers Turkish children and youths during their holidays are really intended to keep them apart from what Milli Gazete called the "immoral way of life" of modern secular society.

Representatives of Milli Gorus frequently repeat their desire for dialogue with non-Muslims, although some representatives of Christian churches have said they have failed to turn up for discussions to which they were invited.

Also, the North Rhine-Westphalia Office for the Protection of the Constitution has claimed to have evidence of Milli Gorus's cooperation with the Scientology sect for financial purposes. In Bremen, officials are investigating allegations of fraud involving Milli Gorus members' investments in Turkish investment funds. The Munich-based newsmagazine Focus has reported that Milli Gorus used the Internet to call on members to buy weapons, a charge denied by Mr. Erbakan.

Milli Gorus has status as a religious organization, but in the current climate officials say they are taking considerable interest in its business and, especially, political activities.
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