Germany denounced on Monday a Taliban official's appearance at a Cologne mosque, and the interior minister demanded an explanation from the Turkish organization in charge of the location.
A conference hosted by an Afghan association in the city brought Abdul Bari Omar, an official with the Taliban-run health authority in Afghanistan, to the mosque.
The Taliban representative's appearance in Cologne is totally inappropriate and has to be strongly denounced.
"In Germany, no one should give radicals a platform," stated Nancy Faeser, the interior minister.
She demanded an explanation of "how it could have been possible that the room was used" in this way from Ditib, the Turkish-Islamic association in charge of the mosque in the Chorweiler neighborhood of the city.
The management of Ditib said that it was unaware of the Taliban official's scheduled appearance in advance.
It stated, "It was turned into a political event against the original contract, and a speaker who was unknown to us had been invited."
"Any proximity — even spiritual — to the Taliban" was rejected by Ditib.
The Taliban official had not received a visa to enter Germany, according to the foreign ministry.
It also stated that he had apparently been able to enter the nation with a Schengen visa obtained from a "neighboring country."
According to the local media, Omar arrived from the Netherlands, where he had attended a conference held by the World Health Organization at the beginning of November.
The United Nations has referred to the billion-dollar aid and asset freeze implemented by the West since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021 as a "unprecedented fiscal shock" to the aid-dependent Afghan economy.
One of the biggest Islamic organizations in Germany is called Ditib, or the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs.
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