Documents obtained by Der Spiegel reveal how the Hamburg Islamic Center followed directives from Khamenei’s office, including supporting Hezbollah and promoting the October 7th attack on Israel.
The German Ministry of the Interior provided Der Spiegel with a 220-page document detailing the activities of the Islamic Center Hamburg (known as the “Blue Mosque“), showing its close ties with the Iranian government and its support for the terrorist group Hezbollah.
The center was closed on July 24th. The German Ministry of the Interior announced that the Islamic Center Hamburg and its subsidiaries in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin were banned for following “extremist Islamist objectives.”
According to documents obtained by Der Spiegel, Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh, the head of the Islamic Center Hamburg, who was expelled from Germany in November 2022 during the peak of nationwide protests in Iran, had direct contact with the office of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Investigators discovered WhatsApp chats between Mofatteh and Mehdi Mostafavi, the Deputy of Communications and International Affairs in the Supreme Leader’s office, revealing that the two exchanged over 650 messages from late 2021 to the end of 2023.
In these chats, Mostafavi provided detailed instructions to Mofatteh, including guidelines on “Khamenei’s messages for German-speaking pilgrims” in 2023 or the center’s main activities in 2024. Mostafavi also sent Mofatteh content for anti-Israel propaganda.
Connections with Hezbollah and Financial Aid to Yemen
The documents also show that alongside the name of the head of the Islamic Center Hamburg is the personal seal of the “Supreme Leader of the Revolution” approving financial support for Yemen’s Houthis, indicating that the center was a direct arm of Iran’s foreign missions.
Investigators also found evidence of direct and close ties between the Islamic Center Hamburg and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This includes a report from a Hezbollah cleric responsible for its “foreign relations,” detailing his travels in Germany. In 2016, he expressed gratitude for the financial and advisory support provided by the Iranian regime to Hezbollah.
Two years later, he wrote about “participating in regular meetings at the Imam Ali Center,” which is the name of the Blue Mosque in Hamburg. Investigators also found the phone numbers of several other Hezbollah representatives on the mobile phones of Mofatteh and other officials at the center.
Confidential documents show that Hezbollah representatives and the Islamic Center Hamburg were apparently involved in a project to build a mosque in the city of Hanover, Germany.
According to the German Ministry of the Interior, the foreign relations officer of Hezbollah played a significant role in planning this mosque project, and operational issues had to be reported to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
Currently, the German prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe is investigating several officials of the Niedersachsen Mosque Association on suspicion of membership in the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Questions on this matter posed to a lawyer for the Islamic Center Hamburg have gone unanswered.
Mofatteh had previously claimed that these centers are “purely religious institutions.” He had stated, “The Islam we promote here is the Islam of rationality, peace, friendship, and peaceful coexistence among people.”
