Muslim groups face ban

Germany is considering a legal ban on ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups, its interior minister has said, after violent clashes with the police, one of which was provoked by ultra-rightists.

Last weekend, Salafists turned on police protecting far-right anti-Islam protesters during a regional election rally in Bonn, injuring 29 officers, two of them seriously. Police arrested 109 people.

The far-right protesters had infuriated the Salafists by waving banners showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

“We will use all the possibilities at the disposal of a constitutional state to oppose them [violent Salafists] wherever they fight against … our constitutional order,” interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said.

“Germany will not allow anybody to impose religious wars on us, neither radical Salafists nor far-right parties such as the Pro NRW,” he said, referring to the ultra-nationalist that clashed with the Salafists in Bonn.

Mr Friedrich said Germany was home to some 4,000 Salafists, not all of whom were violent. “Without question the Salafists are ideologically close to al-Qaeda,” he said.