Berlin: Germany government is considering to introduce “mosque tax” for German Muslims, in the lines of church taxes that German Christians pay.
According to Die Weltdaily, Thorsten Frei, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) told that a mosque tax was “an important step” that would allow “Islam in Germany to emancipate itself from foreign states.”
Practicing Catholics and Protestants also pay church taxes In Germany in order to fund church activities. The taxes collected by the state are then transferred to religious authorities.
As per the officials estimate there are between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims living in Germany, but those figures include people whose families are Muslim by tradition and the number of practicing Muslims could be much lower.
Supporting the measure, the founder of a progressive Berlin mosque, Seyran Ates, told that German Muslims “have to stand up themselves Islam in Germany “. “They have to take care about their own religion here in Germany. So Muslims in Germany should do something for Islam in Germany.”