What is a officer for the global freedom of religion? The balance of Markus Grübel after a year is sobering: Religious conflicts, religious leaders must do more for peace.
The solidarity rally “Berlin is wearing a kippah” – a sign against anti-Semitism in Germany
It is “not a good development in the world. The situation of freedom of religion, the Situation of religious minorities in the world has deteriorated,” says Markus Grübel.
The CDU member of the Bundestag for more than a year, “the German government’s representative for the global freedom of religion”. This is a bulky long title. For a task, the many focal points and different facets.
“The tolerance. Radical groups, in particular radical Islamist groups have in the economy. Also, countries like China have towards religious groups, increasingly reservations. We remember the. The Situation of religious minorities is significantly worse. Their space to the life of Religion is restricted,” says Grübel to the German wave.
Regular Report
In the case of the formation of the government over a year ago, Union and SPD had agreed in the coalition agreement, for the first time, a representative for global religious freedom. He should create the leader of the government report on the worldwide situation of the freedom of religion. Yet, there was this report only once – in the year 2016. In the future, the government wants to submit to him every two years.
Grübel, 59 years old, belongs to as a member of Parliament from Baden-Württemberg in the Bundestag since 2002. In the previous parliamentary term, he was state Secretary in the Ministry of defence. His present office is in the Ministry of development. The fits, as he thinks, because the house had intensive contacts in many countries, “not only in the capital but also in the area”.
Officer Markus Grübel (center right) during a visit to Iraq in the Nineveh plain
He always is on trips, meets members of the clergy, politicians, and people in Need, because they are not religiously followed. So he visited a few weeks ago for the third Time in the Nineveh plain in Iraq. There, Christians, Muslims and Yazidis seek, after years of the IS-terror with religious leaders to make a peaceful Coexistence, in which everyone, regardless of his Religion to bring his visions. A further way. But he has begun.
Shafts and Bells
But it is also a matter of concern for Germany to reach him. “My name is ‘representative of the Federal government for worldwide freedom of religion’. For the world, Germany is one,” he says. As issues from the domestic, he is called, for example, the question of the shechita, the ritual slaughter for Jews and Muslims, the bell of the churches, but also the question of the political influence of the Turkish government to imams in Germany to ring.
Now, one among many is Grübel as an officer. Because the Federal government has to the 40 Commissioner for Migration or maintenance, digitalization and the reduction of bureaucracy, for the TRANS-Atlantic cooperation, for the interests of people with disabilities, for Jewish life in Germany and the fight against anti-Semitism. There are mostly men, only about ten women.
In Bangladesh, visited Grübel 2018 Muslim families, fleeing persecution from Myanmar
Almost half of the incumbent belong to the Parliament. The nearly 40 officers are not in addition to-government, but their own experts but the pool and should be integrated according to the rules of procedure “in all projects affecting their task at an early stage”. Only a few of these mandates have been around since the 50s or 60s, most of the government in the recent time.
40 Officers – since it is hardly possible that all stand out on a regular basis. In the German media, the anti-Semitism is currently well-Instructed Felix Klein at the most. What does Grübel, with its theme of penetrate?
Pasture land and resistance
“The issue of religious freedom has in the last few years, unfortunately the economy,” he says. Religion superimpose often political or economic conflicts of interest, which is really only pasture or local influence. It was the sheer Terror of the Islamists, or the resistance of countries with own ideas of human rights and freedom of religion.
“Almost a Saint”: Gamal Fouda, the Imam of Christchurch, at a conference of European Muslims in Hamburg
But in the case of an experience Grübel, who is himself Catholic, shows, almost emotion. A few days ago, he received the Imam of the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch, new Zealand, Gamal Fouda. The spiritual survived, in mid-March, the mass murder of an extreme Right-wing of defenceless faithful.
“This Imam appeared to me almost like a Saint,” recalls Grübel at the meeting. “He has described impressively how he has the fact, experienced. But he has also made clear that There must be a turning point, in order to violence with violence.”
And Grübel speaks, “very impressed” by the commitment of religious leaders to promote the youth for peaceful Coexistence. “Fouda actually has a peace ethos, in itself, a credibility that I found so rare.”