Turkish Muslim leader in Germany resigns after exposure of racist social media posts
Mustafa Keskin, long-time chairman of the DİTİB community in Germany's Göttingen, has resigned from his position after his racist social media posts were exposed by a youth group. DİTİB currently runs about 900 mosques in Germany with over 1,000 imams, who are appointed from Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet).
Duvar English
Mustafa Keskin, chairman of the branch of DİTİB, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in the German city of Göttingen, has resigned from his position after his racist social media posts drew severe criticism in Germany, Turkish-language news website Avrupa Postası reported on March 9.
Keskin's online activity was brought to light by “Die Falken” (The Falcons), a socialist youth organization in Germany.
Keskin is said to have targeted Jews, Armenians and Kurds in his posts, while he refers positively to Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
In a social media message shared in 2014, Keskin is seen posting a weapon and bullet.
In 2015, he posted photographs of Pope Francis and Turkish right-wing extremist Mehmet Ali Ağca, who shot and injured former Pope John Paul II in 1981.
"There is Armenian Genocide" and “And then they’re surprised when you shoot them in the head,” the Facebook post reads.
The post is a reference to Pope Francis' condemnation of the mass killing of Armenians a century ago by Ottoman forces as “genocide.”
Keskin’s current WhatsApp profile also features a picture depicting Donald Trump and Joe Biden as the “old” and “new” puppets, respectively, of investment bankers and, in the picture, “puppet master” Jacob Rothschild -- the honorary president of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
DİTİB attempted to distance itself from its former chairman in Göttingen and said Keskin's posts cannot be tolerated. Yet Germany is preparing to launch an investigation into the case.
DİTİB currently runs about 900 mosques in Germany with over 1,000 imams, who are appointed from Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet).