Laptops, money seized during raid on banned Islamic centre in Germany

German police have seized laptops and money during raids targeting a newly banned Islamic association based outside Berlin.

The interior minister of the state of Brandenburg, Michael Stübgen, said "a considerable amount of cash" had been seized.

Stübgen announced on Thursday that he has banned the Islamic Centre in Fürstenwalde in eastern Brandenburg, saying it has links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. The centre has also been promoting anti-Semitism on social media, authorities said.

In a statement released on Thursday, Stübgen said, "We cannot tolerate associations that oppose the constitutional order or the notion of harmony among nations."

Some 70 police officers have been conducting searches at the Islamic Centre in Fürstenwalde, some 40 kilometres south-east of Berlin, since the morning.

There was also a raid in Berlin, where the imam of the mosque lives, Stübgen said. The premises of the association were sealed, he added.

The announcement comes about 10 days before the September 22 state election in Brandenburg, in which migration and religious extremism are among the main concerns of voters and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is leading in the polls.

Migration policy has been the dominant topic in political debate in Germany since a knife-wielding assailant killed three people and wounded eight others last month in the western German city of Solingen, near Dusseldorf.

The suspected attacker is a 26-year-old Syrian man who had evaded an order to be deported from Germany to Bulgaria, where he was first registered in the European Union.

Stübgen had announced months ago that he intended to take action against the Islamic association, which is active on a national level.

The interior minister said the Brandenburg centre has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement founded in 1928 in Egypt, where it is banned.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist militia group which invaded Israel on October 7, triggering the current Gaza war, is the Brotherhood's branch in the Palestinian territory.

In July 2023, the Islamic Centre was classified by Brandenburg's domestic intelligence agency as having a confirmed extremist purpose.

At that time, Stübgen said, "The association acts against the liberal democratic basic order, spreads anti-Semitic narratives and denies Israel's right to exist. We must not tolerate this."

Security authorities have warned that young people in particular could be indoctrinated and radicalized with extremist ideologies.

According to the interior ministry, the association was founded in 2018 in Fürstenwalde and operates the al-Salam Mosque there.

Leisure and educational activities for women, children and young people are organized there in addition to Friday sermons.

Religious lessons were also offered during holiday camps for children.

According to assessments by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, known as the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the association's extremist agenda can be demonstrated through its activities and social media posts.