Germany mulls introducing 'mosque tax' for Muslims

Lawmakers from Germany's grand coalition government said on Wednesday that they were considering introducing a "mosque tax" for German Muslims, similar to the church taxes that German Christians pay.

Thorsten Frei, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) told Die Welt daily that a mosque tax was "an important step" that would allow "Islam in Germany to emancipate itself from foreign states."

In Germany, church taxes are collected from practicing Catholics and Protestants in order to fund church activities. They are collected by the state and then transferred to religious authorities.

In the absence of a similar tax, mosques in Germany are reliant upon donations, raising concerns about possible financing by foreign organizations and governments, which has sometimes prompted questions about the promotion of fundamentalist ideologies. For example, there has been growing concern about the influence of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), an arm of the Turkish government based in Germany.

Officials estimates report that there are between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims living in Germany, but those figures include people whose families are Muslim by tradition and the number of practicing Muslims could be much lower.

A lawmaker from Germany's other ruling party, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), agreed that a mosque tax could help Islam in Germany become more independent. The SPD's domestic policy chief Burkhard Lischka agreed that it was a topic "worthy of discussion."

The founder of a progressive Berlin mosque, Seyran Ates, supported the idea when asked by Die Welt, saying "in the future everything that the community needs to could be paid for by its members themselves."

Several European countries, including Austria, Sweden, and Italy, also use church taxes to fund Catholic and Protestant institutions. It has also been criticized for being compulsory for practicing Christians and, as it is collected by the government, for blurring the lines between church and state.

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green_flash on December 26th, 2018 at 14:46 UTC »

For clarity: This is about a tax collected by the state and paid to churches, rather than paid by churches as many here have assumed.

green_flash on December 26th, 2018 at 14:14 UTC »

I think one has to explain what Germany's church tax is since many here aren't familiar with it and assume this is about a tax inflicted on churches and payable to the state. It is in fact a tax collected by the state that goes to the churches.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax#Germany

About 70% of church revenues come from church tax (Kirchensteuer), also called worship tax (Kultussteuer) when referring to non-Christian religious bodies such as Jewish synagogues. This is about €9.2 billion (in 2010).

Membership in the religious community is stored in a database at the Federal Tax Office which employers receive excerpts of for the purpose of withholding tax on paid income. If an employee's data indicate membership in a tax-collecting religious community, the employer must withhold church tax prepayments from their income in addition to other tax prepayments. In connection with the final annual income tax assessment, the state revenue authorities also finally assess the church tax owed.

The church tax is only paid by members of the respective church. People who are not members of a church tax-collecting denomination do not have to pay it.

sqgl on December 26th, 2018 at 13:33 UTC »

Saudi Arabian Wahabists fund a lot of Western mosques apparently. Iran funds the Shi'ite mosques I presume.

EDIT: Despite all the 2100 upvotes, others have informed me that Turkish funded mosques are the biggest issue in Germany. Sorry, it was my knee-jerk Australian perspective. Also, Aussie Iranians tend to be intellectuals and are cool.