By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The German government has banned a Muslim group known as Muslim Interaktiv over accusations of anti-constitutional activities.
The Interior Ministry announced the ban on Wednesday as police carried out coordinated raids on seven locations in Hamburg, where the group was based.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, a member of the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc, said the government would not tolerate groups seeking to threaten the country’s democratic values.
“We will not allow organisations such as ‘Muslim Interaktiv’ to undermine our free society with their hatred… and attack our country from within,” Dobrindt said.
The group came under scrutiny in April 2024 following a rally in Hamburg attended by more than 1,200 people protesting what they described as Germany’s Islamophobic policies. During the demonstration, some participants carried placards reading “the caliphate is the solution”, which sparked widespread debate and public outrage.
According to the Interior Ministry, Muslim Interaktiv was accused of rejecting women’s rights and promoting hostility toward Israel. Following the ban, the group will be dissolved and its assets seized.
Hamburg’s city government said the organisation, founded in 2020, had an active online presence and often claimed that politicians and society were hostile toward Muslims.
The city’s interior minister, Andy Grote of the centre-left SPD, welcomed the government’s decision, saying authorities had “eliminated a dangerous and very active Islamist group.”
Police also searched buildings in Berlin and the western state of Hesse as part of separate investigations into two other groups, Generation Islam and Realitaet Islam.
Germany has previously banned several Islamic organisations, including the NGO Ansaar, which was outlawed in 2021 over allegations of financing Islamist terrorism under the guise of charity work.