Ban impossible

Thousands of Islamists demonstrate in Hamburg

At a demonstration in Hamburg in April by the same organizer, this sign by a participant caused a scandal(Bild: APA/DPA/AXEL HEIMKEN)

Numerous Muslims gathered for a demonstration in Hamburg on Saturday evening - behind the action was "Muslim interactive", which is said to be close to a banned Islamist organization. 2000 participants were expected. 

The venue is Hamburger Steindamm in the St. Georg district near the main railway station. The motto of the event is: "Stop the genocide against our Uyghur brothers and sisters in East Turkistan". The demonstration is scheduled to last three hours. 

The organization shared a video of the demonstration on Twitter: 

Connection to banned organization
As reported by Bild, the rally was announced by Joe Adade Boateng. The student is leader of the Islamist movement "Muslim Interactive". This is closely linked to the banned organization "Hizb ut-Tahrir", which is being monitored by the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution. 

(Bild: APA/DPA/AXEL HEIMKEN)

Promotion of the caliphate at demo in April
In order to increase the number of participants, the organizers had advertised the demonstration intensively on the Internet. There had already been a rally by "Muslim Interactive" in April, which caused a lot of negative publicity. One participant openly proclaimed: "Caliphate is the solution" on a poster. 

According to the police, the assembly authorities had examined whether the event could be banned. "As the right to freedom of assembly enshrined in the Basic Law is a cornerstone of our democracy, an assembly can only be banned under special circumstances, e.g. if life or limb is at risk. The examination by the assembly authorities has shown that a ban is not possible," a spokesperson told Bild.