BERLIN, December 27 -- German politicians are considering a controversial “mosque tax” – supposedly to draw the country’s Muslims away from “foreign influence.” The proposal from Thorstein Frei, deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is apparently aimed at helping “Islam in Germany free itself from the influence of foreign states and get a stronger domestic orientation.” Many German mosques are funded privately and state intelligence services say they fear the influence of extremist Salafist groups linked to Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The number of Islamists in Germany has reached the record high of 11,000, according to a 2017 report by Hans-Georg Maassen, the then head of national security agency the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). Authorities also reportedly fear the influence of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, alleging that it seeks to establish a monopoly on mosques in Saxony. Mr Maassen has since been sacked as BfV chief after dismissing video footage of racist violence in Chemnitz and following a scandal over his closeness to the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Christians in Germany are required to pay a so-called church tax, a levy which comes directly out of their wage packet and accounts for around 70 per cent of church revenue. Under Mr Frei’s proposals, a similar tax would be paid by all practising Muslims in Germany and then redistributed among all officially registered Islamic religious institutions. The Christian Social Union, the CDU’s even more right-wing sister party in Bavaria, called for greater transparency, included forcing mosques to post their imams’ sermons online, while Social Democratic Party MP Burkhard Lischka said Mr Frei’s suggestion was “worthy of discussion.” Although the Interior Ministry said the proposal “can be a solution,” it believes any such law would require the support of grassroots Muslim organisations.
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