Germany carries out raids and bans a group accused of links to Iran and support for Hezbollah

BERLIN (news agencies) — The German government on Wednesday banned a Hamburg-based organization accused of promoting the Iranian leadership’s ideology and supporting Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, as police raided 53 properties around the country.

The ban on the Islamic Center Hamburg, or IZH, and five suborganizations around Germany followed searches in November. 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 suborganizations “also support the terrorists of Hezbollah and spread aggressive antisemitism,” Faeser said in a statement.

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 group, which runs a mosque in Hamburg, 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 beside the country’s embassy.

It said there were no reliable figures for members or supporters of the group, founded in 1962. There have been calls for it to be banned for years.

The IZH said last fall that it “condemns every form of violence and extremism and has always advocated peace, tolerance and interreligious dialogue.”

The 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 ministry said that because of the ban, four Shiite mosques in Germany will be closed. The IZH’s assets are also being confiscated.

Hezbollah is banned in Germany. The Iranian-backed group and Israel have been trading near-daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza broke out in October.