Germany\u2019s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) adopted a controversial party program Sunday that called for banning Islamic symbols and restricting religious practices of Muslims.
\nThe majority of AfD\u2019s some 2,000 delegates backed the program in a vote after a debate at the party\u2019s national congress held in western Stuttgart city.
\nThe program\u2019s chapter on Islam was titled \u201cIslam does not belong to Germany\u201d and it included various proposals to ban public expressions of Islam.
\nIt demanded a ban on mosque minarets and muezzins\u2019 call to prayer, depicting them as symbols of Islamic power.
\nIt also called for a bar on veils such as the niqab or burka in public, and on headscarves at schools.
\nThe AfD party program also opposed Turkey\u2019s EU membership; it demanded EU reform that gave stronger role to national parliaments, and it called for strong measures to seal off the bloc\u2019s external borders to stop illegal migration.
\nRecent polls show that AfD has become the third largest political party in Germany amid growing worries over the refugee crisis and religious extremist attacks in Europe.
\nA representative poll by the public broadcaster ARD last month showed that the AfD increased its support to 14 percent, leaving behind the Green Party and the Left Party, the two leading opposition parties at the federal parliament.
\nThe AfD, which was founded only three years ago as a protest movement, achieved record support in regional elections in March with an anti-immigration and anti-Islam propaganda.
\nGermany, which will hold general election next year, has the second-largest Muslim population in western Europe.
\nAmong the four million Muslims in the country, three million are of Turkish origin.<\/p>\n
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