BQ 823 – 03/2025
Extremist ideologies are often underestimated in secular Europe

10. January 2025

Solidarity event at Bonn University 100 days after the terrorist attack on Israel

(Bonn, 10.01.2025) One hundred days after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, a solidarity event was held at the University of Bonn. After an opening statement by Ron Prosor, Ambassador of the State of Israel in Berlin, and a welcoming address by the Vice Rector for International Affairs, Prof. Dr. Birgit Ulrike Münch, the following discussed on the podium: the former Pre­sident of the German Bundestag, Dr. Norbert Lammert, the Chairman of the Synagogue Cologne and Vice President of the Central Council of Jews, Abraham Lehrer, the Minister for Federal and European Affairs, Inter­national Affairs and Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Nathanael Liminski, and the Professor of Islamic Studies at the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn, Prof. Dr. Christine Schirrmacher. The evening was moderated by Marlon Amoyal, head of the editorial team “Events” at Phoenix.

The evening, which was organized under the highest security precautions, was a cooperative event between the Israeli Embassy, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) under the direction of its director Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie, the Bonn Academy for Research and Teaching of Practical Politics (BAPP), the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy for International Politics, the Abraham Accord Institute, the German-Israeli Society and the University of Bonn.

“In view of Islamist extre­mism,” emphasized Chris­tine Schirrmacher, “the Western secular states must relearn to take hostile ideologies such as that of Hamas more seriously in order to avert further disaster from our liberal-democratic societies.” We have to go back to reading the sources, starting with the founding charter of the Muslim Brotherhood from 1928, which declared the extermination of Jews as early as its early years. Now, after the attack on Israel in October 2023, Hamas has declared that not only is the extermination of Jews their goal, but that Christians also have no right to exist, Schirrmacher warned emphatically. All dissidents are also in the crosshairs of extremist groups like Hamas.

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