The Munich Islamic Centre (IZM) has faced a wave of criticism after controversial content on its website, namely recommendations to husbands on how to handle conflicts within their families, were highlighted by Bayerischer Rundfunk 24. A subsection on the website, titled Wife and Family, suggested, citing the Qur'an, that a husband can beat his "unruly" spouse, albeit only as a last resort after admonishing her and rejecting her in the bedroom.
According to Bayerischer Rundfunk 24, these recommendations have been instructing visitors to the website for the last 15 years. The outlet indicated that the German Muslim Community (DMG) had promised on behalf of the IZM to make amendments to certain sections of the centre's website back in March 2019, but ultimately failed to do so. The DMG explained the delay as being due to a variety factors, such as illness of those responsible for the site's content, but vowed to fix everything within two weeks.
The revelation by the German media outlet caused outrage among local politicians. A member of the city council and of the committee on integration, Cumali Naz from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), strongly condemned the recommendations provided by IZM.
"If the IZM propagated that violence is a legitimate means to resolve marital conflicts, this fundamentally contradicts the values of our society. Calls for violence have no place in our society", he stated.
Evelyne Menges, the deputy head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party at the City Council, where the CSU holds the second most seats after SPD, stated that "inhuman and violent content" on the website "can't be tolerated", going on to call for the controversial counsel to be removed "as quickly as possible".
However, the local prosecutor doesn’t see any violations in the content of the IZM website, with the official saying that while the centre's publications sound "strange sometimes", they still fall short of being "a criminal offense".
Germany has seen an increase in its crime rate, especially rapes, following a major influx of migrants from the Middle East, which started in 2015. This has led many Germans across the country to protest against the open door policy proclaimed by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The chancellor herself admitted in 2018 that certain "no-go" areas had appeared in various German cities. These are areas where regular laws don't apply and where even law enforcement sometimes doesn’t dare enter. According to Police Union chief Rainer Wendt, such zones are often run either by criminal gangs or by Muslim communities exercising sharia law.
