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GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany - Germany is home to millions of Muslims, but they are a diverse group. Some are influenced by their religious backgrounds, while others are more focused on voting for parties that promise better living conditions for immigrants in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Germans will go to the polls on Sunday.
Inside the Brotherhood Mosque in Gelsenkirchen, Imam Ibrahim speaks in Arabic and German about the importance of participating in the election for the future of their religion in this country. The mosque is fundamentally Kurdish, but Arabs regularly come to pray alongside Kurds. Imam Ibrahim himself was born to a German mother and a Palestinian father. He believes voting is a right and Muslims should not be indifferent to it.
"It is like history repeating itself. Our situation is like 1933 before [Adolf] Hitler came to power. The situation is nearly the same from a political perspective, and the media topics they discuss are almost identical. The only difference is that in the past, it was against Jews, now it's against Muslims," he told Rudaw on Monday.
Riyadh Bakr is a young Syrian who has been in Germany for ten years. He is waiting for the Islamic Association in Dusseldorf to decide which political party is suitable for Muslims so he can vote accordingly.
"There is not an ideal political party that meets all Muslim demands. We are in a Western country with its own laws, but we try our best to support the party that aligns with our goals and implements our objectives to a large extent," he said.
Along with the harsh rhetoric against immigrants from Germany's right-wing parties, Muslims are sometimes directly and indirectly implicated. Muslims, like any other component of this country, believe the election results will affect their religious freedom in Germany.
Rawa Qaradaghi, a Kurdish-Muslim voter, said the upcoming election in Germany is "very important," adding that "For people like us who are not fully German, it is very important to go vote so we can have some power here in Germany."
Herish Hamakhan has been in Germany for 30 years. He has participated in most elections and even goes to vote wearing Kurdish clothes with his children.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD), the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and the Greens "are all the parties that are at the forefront, truly at the front of the stage. There are other smaller parties too, but honestly, until now, although people don't usually share their voting preferences, I might vote for CDU perhaps," Hamakhan told Rudaw.
After Christians, Muslims are the second-largest population group in Germany, numbering over five million people.
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