Germany: Petition against a mosque in Gohlis; but not everyone is saying “No!”

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Through a poster at least 20 of the present representatives of the initiative “Gohlis says No!” clearly identified themselves as members of the National Democratic Party of Germany.

Nina Mair and Robert Jahn from the group “1001 Mosque” are protesting
against the mosque-opponents with pink balloons. Photo: Stefanie Otto

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Mephisto 97.6 FM
By Elisa Marie Rinne | April 16, 2013
Translated from Deutsch by Maleeha Zafar

10,000 signatures for “Gohlis says No!” were handed over to the City Council Thursday morning.  That means 10,000 signatures against tolerance, cosmopolitanism and religious freedom. However, members of the opposing initiative “1001 Mosque” were also present on-site. 

Leipzig/ Germany - Members of the citizens’ initiative “Gohlis says No”, -- which is associated with the National Democratic Party of Germany  -- came to the City Council Meeting Thursday morning to present signatures collected from the online petition “No mosque in Leipzig/ Gohlis citizens’ initiative: Gohlis says No!” to Lord Mayor Burkhard Jung (Social Democratic Party).

With the petition they vocalize themselves against the construction of the Ahmadiyya mosque and explain:

"We believe that the implementation of the building project will bring considerable disadvantages to Gohlis […]. We are absolutely not against religious freedom but think that there are already sufficient Islamic houses of prayers exist in Leipzig and that especially Gohlis doesn't have to have a mosque. "

A total of 10 000 people have signed the petition - according to “Gohlis says No!” - that is all citizens of the city of Leipzig. Marina Friedrich from the opposing initiative “Dialogues for Gohlis” highly doubts this: “Indeed these signatures exist, but on the one hand we object that all these signatures supposedly are from Leipzig and on the other hand we want to set an example for tolerance, cosmopolitanism and religious freedom in Leipzig.” A total of 70 opponents who were against the petition were present in front of the City Council to demonstrate against the handover of the signatures with balloons among other things.

Through a poster at least 20 of the present representatives of the initiative “Gohlis says No!” clearly identified themselves as members of the National Democratic Party of Germany. Due to this Lord Mayor Jung refused to personally receive the petition, as Matthias Hasberg, spokesperson of the city of Leipzig explained: “The signatures were given to the City Council. The city is accepting the petition, just like all other petitions. However, Mr. Jung did not receive the petition personally.”

In February, Martin Meißner from the initiative “Leipzig says Yes” personally handed over a total of 6000 signatures in favor of the construction of the mosque in Gohlis to Lord Mayor Burkhard Jung.



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