German Islamic Center Affiliates Fail in Emergency Appeals Against Closure

On March 20, 2025, the Ham­burg­er Abend­blatt report­ed that near­ly eight months after the ban on the Islamis­ches Zen­trum Ham­burg (IZH), deemed extrem­ist by the Ger­man gov­ern­ment, two of its affil­i­ate orga­ni­za­tions had failed in their emer­gency appeals before the Fed­er­al Admin­is­tra­tive Court. The arti­cle begins:

Near­ly eight months after the ban on the Islamis­ches Zen­trum Ham­burg (IZH), clas­si­fied as extrem­ist, two of its affil­i­ate orga­ni­za­tions have failed in their emer­gency appeals before the Fed­er­al Admin­is­tra­tive Court. The Islam­ic Cen­ter Berlin and the Cen­ter for Islam­ic Cul­ture Frank­furt had request­ed the Leipzig court to lift the ban on their asso­ci­a­tions as part of inter­im legal pro­tec­tion. They are two of the five affil­i­ate orga­ni­za­tions that the Fed­er­al Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or banned along with the IZH in July of the pre­vi­ous year. At that time, assets and prop­er­ties were seized. Mosques like the Blue Mosque on the Out­er Alster in Ham­burg have been closed ever since… [Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man original]

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Key Points:

• The Islam­ic Cen­ter Berlin and the Cen­ter for Islam­ic Cul­ture Frank­furt failed in their emer­gency appeals to over­turn the ban on their associations.
• These orga­ni­za­tions were among five affil­i­ates banned along­side the IZH in July of the pre­vi­ous year, with assets seized and mosques closed.
• The Fed­er­al Min­istry of the Inte­ri­or jus­ti­fied the ban, cit­ing the IZH as a sig­nif­i­cant pro­pa­gan­da cen­ter for Iran in Europe, pur­su­ing anti-con­sti­tu­tion­al goals.
• The court ruled that the orga­ni­za­tions were sub­stan­tial­ly con­trolled by the IZH, despite their denials of being affiliates.

The Islam­ic Cen­tre Ham­burg (Islamis­ches Zen­trum Ham­burg, IZH), also known as the Blue Mosque, was a promi­nent Shi­ite Islam­ic insti­tu­tion in Ger­many, locat­ed in Hamburg’s Uhlen­horst dis­trict. Estab­lished in the late 1950s by Iran­ian expa­tri­ates, it became a spir­i­tu­al and cul­tur­al hub for Shia Mus­lims in Europe, with its mosque com­plet­ed in 1965. Over the decades, the IZH played a key role in fos­ter­ing reli­gious activ­i­ties and polit­i­cal move­ments, includ­ing sup­port­ing Iran­ian dis­si­dents dur­ing the 1970s. How­ev­er, it faced increas­ing scruti­ny from Ger­man author­i­ties due to alleged ties with Iran’s regime and Hezbol­lah. The Ger­man domes­tic intel­li­gence ser­vice mon­i­tored the IZH for decades, describ­ing it as a major out­post of Iran­ian Islamism in Europe that sought to “export the Islam­ic rev­o­lu­tion.” The cen­ter was also con­sid­ered one of Iran’s most impor­tant pro­pa­gan­da hubs in Europe, with its for­mer leader Moham­mad Hadi Mofat­teh report­ed­ly act­ing as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Despite reject­ing these claims, the IZH was banned in July 2024 for pro­mot­ing extrem­ism and anti­semitism, lead­ing to asset seizures and nation­wide clo­sures of asso­ci­at­ed mosques. Mofat­teh was sub­se­quent­ly expelled from Ger­many in August 2024, mark­ing the end of the center’s con­tro­ver­sial presence.

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