An uproar has erupted in Germany for the appearance of a Taliban representative in a mosque in Cologne. A representative of the Taliban government participated in an event organized last Friday at a mosque in Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) in Cologne. He even asked his audience not to trust the Western media, talked about the successes of the Taliban and called on his compatriots living in Europe, especially those with some expertise, to return to Afghanistan.

According to video footage posted on the Afghanistan International website, the head of Afghanistan’s Food and Drug Administration Abdul Bari Omar addresses an audience of 70 people and is heard saying: “Friends, let’s pay attention to the facts about the achievements of the Taliban, without paying attention to the media. We must try to learn the facts ourselves.” He also argues that the Taliban have been able to implement projects successfully and even without financial aid from abroad.

As it later became known, the representative of the Afghan government entered Germany legally with a Schengen visa, which he obtained from the Netherlands, where he participated in a conference of the World Health Organization in The Hague. DITIB, which provided the venue for the event, distanced itself from its content. According to West German Public Radio (WDR), DITIB claims it was only informed afterwards that it was a “political event”. They had been assured by the organizers, the Afghan Cultural Association of Cologne, that it would be a religious and not a political event. “This violates our agreement,” says DITIB in a statement.

“The appearance of the Taliban representative in Cologne was completely unacceptable and must be expressly condemned. No one in Germany is allowed to give way to radical Islamists,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Fesser, while a ministry representative assured her thati the government had no prior knowledge of the event in question or the participants in it. “The ministry has taken cognizance of DITIB’s public explanations and will seek further clarification on the matter,” the spokesman said.

The appearance was also condemned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, clarifying that the German authorities have not issued a visa for the person in question. “We are considering further measures, in close cooperation with the internal services and partners,” the ministry said in a post on “X”, and it was pointed out that the visit had not been announced earlier in Germany. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that, “as long as the Taliban in Afghanistan brutally violate human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, there will be no normalization of relations with the Taliban regime.”

However, according to BILD, the Afghan government had announced the appearance of Abdul Bari Omar with a relevant announcement 10 days before – and even in English. The Afghan, as he states in his social media posts, proud to still be in Europe and to have crossed half of Germany, from west to east, to Slovakia, where he will make one more appearance.