Lord Mayor of Munich Cancels Interfaith Community Prayer for Peace after Volker Beck’s Criticism of the Muslim Council

On November 6, 2023, the Munich Forum for Islam (Münchner Forum für Islam, MFI) announced the cancellation of an interfaith community prayer for peace with Jewish and Muslim participants that had been planned for that same day, in coordination with Munich’s Lord Mayor, Dieter Reiter (SPD). The event was an initiative of Munich imams, meant to “stand as a sign for peace and justice in the Middle East, and for unity in our own country,” Benjamin Idriz, head of the MFI and imam of the Penzberg Mosque, said in the announcement the preceding Friday. In addition to prayers from Imam Idriz and from Rabbi Jan Guggenheim, representatives of the Evangelical and Catholic churches were set to offer prayers. Speeches were planned from Lord Mayor Reiter, and from Sokol Lamaj of the Muslim Council of Munich (Muslimrat München).

The Jüdische Allgemeine newspaper harshly criticized the event on November 5 in an article that termed it an “interdenominational prayer with Islamists” and referred to accusations from 2018 that the Muslim Council of Munich was linked to extremist groups. In the same context, the head of the German-Israeli Society Volker Beck “warned” Reiter not to participate in or endorse the event: “I consider the prayer for peace in this configuration to be an event that only serves to promote and protect Islamist, Hamas-trivializing views.” Reiter withdrew his endorsement, “nevertheless” appealing “to all Munich residents to remain peaceful and not to give in to hatred and agitation.”

The MFI’s press release, titled ‘Unfortunate Cancellation of the Prayer for Peace,’ noted that the organizers’ intention to affirm the possibility of religious coexistence had been thwarted by the withdrawal, on short notice, of Jewish, Evangelical, and Catholic participants. “We had dearly hoped that all responsible parties in our city would have wanted to take the outstretched hand and send a clear signal for togetherness,” the MFI wrote. “When, if not now, must we muster all our strength to respect, appreciate and accept one another?! To experience the impossibility of this in Munich is very painful, and not just for Muslims.”
Palestine Speaks and Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East brought charges against Volker Beck in February 2024 for "advocating, trivialising, condoning or denying genocide" and "supporting collective punishment of an entire population through starvation". Beck called the claims “nonsense” and told Reuters, “There is no genocide in Gaza and I do not advocate genocide.”