Right-wing AfD says Muslims not welcome in Germany

Germany’s right-wing AfD has approved an anti-Islam policy manifesto, adding fuel to the controversy engulfing a populist party seeking parliamentary seats in federal elections next year.

The proposals, entitled “Islam is not part of Germany,” were approved unanimously by some 2,400 party members at its congress in the western city of Stuttgart on Sunday.

The populists' new anti-Islam policy also called for a ban on minarets on mosques, the call to prayer, full-face veils for women and headscarves in schools.

The anti-Islam platform comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has on many occasions said that Islam belongs to Germany and that freedom of religion for all is guaranteed by the country's constitution.

The manifesto by the anti-refugee party also demands curbs on immigration.

Europe is facing its worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II as vast numbers of asylum seekers fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East try to gain access to the continent.

The refugee crisis in Europe and a series of terrorist attacks across the globe have given rise to a sense of Islamaphobia among racists and xenophobes in the West.

Founded in February 2013, the AfD is known for its anti-immigration stance and has attracted strong support from those who criticized Merkel's open-door policy that brought in over one million asylum seekers last year.

According to an Emnid institute survey for the German Sunday newspaper, Bild am Sonntag, support for the AfD stood at 13 percent, narrowly beating the ecologist Greens as Germany's third strongest party.

Having entered half of Germany's 16 state parliaments, the AfD has now firmly set its sights on national elections next year.

Fire at French Muslim prayer hall

Meanwhile a fire ripped through a Muslim prayer hall in the French island of Corsica on Saturday, which prosecutors said could be a “criminal attack.”

No injuries have been reported following the blaze at one of the largest prayer halls in the island’s capital Ajaccio.

French President Francois Hollande has promised a swift investigation into the blaze.

“If it is confirmed to be of criminal origin, those responsible must be rapidly identified and brought to justice,” he said.

“Any anti-religious act must not be tolerated,” he added in a statement.

Abdallah Zekri, the head of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, said the prayer hall suffered major damage in the fire.

He called on authorities “to do everything to shed light on this incident in order to avoid an escalation of violence.”

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve issued a statement on Saturday expressing “solidarity with the Muslims of Corsica.”

He also voiced the “commitment of the government to protect all places of worship, and to ensure freedom of worship throughout the territory.”

The blaze came just months after a separate Muslim prayer hall in Ajaccio was ransacked by a mob.

France’s five-million-strong Muslim community, which is the largest in Europe, accounts for about eight percent of the country’s total population.

Anti-Muslim sentiments are on the rise in France after last year’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

On November 13, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks, claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, brought shock and horror to the French capital. Some 130 people were killed and over 350 others were injured in the horrendous attacks.

Takfirism is largely influenced by Wahhabism, the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia and freely preached by Saudi clerics.

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