On the occasion of the "Anti-Islamization Congress", which is taking place from September 19-21 in Cologne, representatives of the "Critical Islam Conference" called for resistance "against the native and immigrant legal forces."

The declaration signed by Mina Ahadi (Central Council of Ex-Muslims), Ralph Giordano, Hartmut Krauss (Hintergrund magazine) and Michael Schmidt-Salomon (Giordano Bruno Stiftung) states that the organizers of the "Anti-Islamisation Congress" are not concerned "to denounce anti-human-rights, anti-democratic, and reactionary-patriarchal basic contents and practices of Islam, but rather to stigmatise immigrants from Turkey, Iran, and Arab countries as a general threat." This anti-Islam propaganda functions as an instrument for the "populist exploitation of justified Islam-critical moods within the local population".

The representatives of the Critical Islam Conference, however, deal bluntly with "Pro Köln" and its allies, as well as with the other side of "supposedly antiracist Islam sympathisers." The envoys Erdogans, Milli Görüs and the Grey Wolves were "laughing up their sleeves when German demonstrators protested unilaterally and vehemently against Pro Köln etc.," but duck away "when Islamists, honour killers, forced marriages, caricature violators, Muslim murderers, Jew-haters etc. would need to be confronted."

Today we need a "third force" that will defend itself against racism and xenophobia as well as against forms of religious rule violating human rights. Objective of this third force is "a free, just, and solidary society in which human rights violations are not tolerated and trivialized by any side".

On September 12, the signers want to make their positions heard within the framework of a special event of the Critical Islam Conference on the occasion of the "Anti-Islamization Congress". Speakers will be Ralph Giordano, Mina Ahadi, and the Islam critic Hartmut Krauss. Further information can be found on the website www.kritische-islamkonferenz.de