“Sermons held in some mosques do not conform with the modern understanding of statehood,” Volker Kauder, conservative MP in Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic party, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, stressing that the state “needs to act… There must be supervision.” Kauder is also head of the conservative’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament.
Kauder believes that the secular state should regulate “representatives and members of all religions,” including Islam, and that religious ministers should deliver sermons conforming to state precepts, he said.
“We live in a secular state in which religion is not the state,” Kauder said, so the values of the German Constitution should apply to any religion. “That must be clear,” he added, “This may be different in Islamic states. In Germany, the state sets the rules.”
Just as Germany has a responsibility to confronts neo-Nazi tendencies and ensure that it never returns to fascism, so should Muslims stand firm against radicalization and terrorism, Kauder said.
The German official was referring to the political view that religion, and Muslims in particular, must conform to state-defined norms. His remarks were made on the eve of a weekend congress of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Stuttgart.
Islam’s religious teachings are coming under increasing pressure to conform to German political standards. While Islam’s views are not biblical, what happens when unpopular biblical views also come under scrutiny? Will the German state restrict Sabbath-keepers and true Protestants once case law in dealing with Islam sets precedence for all religions? Will freedom of speech and freedom of religion be eroded so much as to fulfill the prophecies of the state religion described in Revelation 13?
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8