Muslims criticize carnival float in parade that mocks mullahs

Feb 19, 2007, 16:35 GMT

Dusseldorf - A Muslim leader in Germany criticized a carnival float in a Monday parade that satirically suggested Islam was not peaceful.

The float carried two identical cartoon-style papier-mache figures, each wearing a suicide-bomber's belt and carrying a dagger and a pistol. The first was labelled 'the cliche,', the second was labelled 'the reality.'

Both scowling figures were labelled 'mullahs,' a term used in Germany as it is in Pakistan to describe both Shiite and Sunni clergy. The float was part of a carnival parade watched by more than half a million people in the western city of Dusseldorf.

'This hasn't got anything to do with humour,' said Aiman A Mazyek, general secretary of the National Council of Muslims in Germany. 'The message it gives me is: 'We love our prejudices, we'll stand up for them, even if they are flagrantly untrue.''

'As a born-and-bred Rhinelander, I wouldn't get too upset about it,' said Mazyek. 'I'm sure most of the revellers don't want to spread anti-Islam cynicism.'

Mockery and rule-breaking is a key element in carnival, which is celebrated mainly in Germany's heavily populated Rhineland where Catholics form a majority. Floats, built by clubs of amateurs for the Dusseldorf parade, often have crude messages.

Another float showed Nazi dictator with his pants off and represented a far-right-wing German party as his bodily waste.