Islamic Centre Hamburg

Islamic Center Hamburg
Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg المركز الإسلامي في هامبورغ
Religion
Affiliation	Shi'ism
Location
Location	Uhlenhorst, Hamburg, Germany
Geographic coordinates	53°34′28.45″N 10°00′30.30″E
Architecture
Architect(s)	Architekturbüro Schramm und Elingius
Type	Mosque
Completed	1961, 1963–65
Construction cost	2 Million Deutschmark
Specifications
Capacity	1500
Dome(s)	2
Minaret(s)	2
Minaret height	16 m
Website
www.izhamburg.com/

The Islamic Centre Hamburg (German: Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg, IZH; Persian: مرکز اسلامی هامبورگ, romanized: Mrkez Aslama Hambwrgu), also known as the Blue Mosque (German: Blaue Moschee), is the oldest mosque in Hamburg, Germany, being established in the late 1950s by a group of Iranian emigrants and business people and built in the early 1960s.

Iranian theologians and politicians (including Ayatollah Beheshti, Ayatollah Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari or Mohammad Khatami) have spent time at the IZH.

The IZH was forcibly closed by the German government in July 2024, amid claims of ties with Iran and the group Hezbollah that the German government has designated as terrorist.

History

During a meeting at the Atlantic Hotel in 1953, a group of Iranian residents of Germany discussed the need to establish their own religious center. A letter was sent to the late Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi asking him for help; Grand Ayatollah agreed with the plan and donated 100,000 Rials to the center. The construction began in 1960 and by 1965 it was completed. In the same year Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti was appointed to lead the center.

During the 1970s, the centre played a significant role in bringing about the political rising of Iranian students in the West against the Shah and ultimately contributed to the Iranian Revolution.

From 1993 until its closing, the Hamburger Verfassungsschutz (HV) monitored IZH as an outpost of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran due to ideological, organisational and personal ties to the regime. The HV considered IZH to work against the democratic societal order. The IZH repeatedly protested the monitoring throughout its lifespan.

In 2016, IZH members took part in an anti-Israel protest in Berlin where Israel was denounced as an "enemy of humanity" and "terrorist", which became part of the long-standing public debate on Islamic community organisations in Germany.

Omid Nouripour, the leader of Germany's Green Party, had called for the closure of the Islamic Center in Hamburg, which he described as a "spy nest".

The centre was raided on July 24, 2024 and closed by order of Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, after months of investigating its connections to Hezbollah. According to the German Minister of the Interior, the centre was used by the Iranian government to propagate its totalitarian Islamist ideology.

Directors

• Hojjatulislam Mohagheghi (1955–1965)
• Hojjatulislam Mohammad Beheshti (1965–1970)
• Hojjatulislam Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari (1970–1978)
• Hojjatulislam Mohammad Khatami (1978–1980)
• Hojjatulislam Mohammad Reza Moghaddam (1980–1992)
• Hojjatulislam Mohammad Bagher Ansari (1992–1998)
• Hojjatulislam Reza Hosseini Nassab (1999–2003)
• Hojjatulislam Seyyed Abbas Hosseini Ghaemmaghami (2004–2009)
• Hojjatulislam Reza Ramezani Gilani (2009–2018)
• Hojjatulislam Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh (August 2018–2024)

See also

• Islam in Germany
• List of mosques in Europe
• Hamburg Central Mosque

External links

• Official website (in German)
• Official website (in English)
• A brief history, Hamburg Islamic Center.