- Title: GERMANY: Hundreds attend rally for bin Laden in Frankfurt
- Date: 8th May 2011
- Summary: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (MAY 7, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLICE DOING SECURITY CHECK VARIOUS OF MEN PRAYING MUSLIM PREACHER PIERRE VOGEL BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (German) MUSLIM PREACHER, PIERRE VOGEL, SAYING: "I just spontaneously had this idea. He was dumped into the ocean, no one held a prayer for the dead in his case, so we will simply do it. We can get a lot of people together and talk about terrorism and how it has no place within Islam. I thought this would draw a lot of people." CAMERAMAN (SOUNDBITE) (German) MUSLIM PREACHER, PIERRE VOGEL, SAYING: "Of course Osama bin Laden is a Muslim. We hope for him, and for every person, that must also be said, that God will forgive him, someone who has sinned. We hope that God forgives everyone who sins." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) MUSLIM PREACHER, PIERRE VOGEL, SAYING: "If you go into a house, and someone is unarmed, according to the U.S. soldiers, and they shoot, then this for me is a type of execution. What else am I supposed to call it?" MEN PRAYING WOMEN LOOKING ON VOGEL WALKING ONTO STAGE VARIOUS OF MAN HOLDING CRUCIFIX VARIOUS OF VOGEL ON STAGE POLICE OFFICERS AMONG WOMEN (SOUNDBITE) (German) MUSLIM PREACHER, PIERRE VOGEL, SAYING: "It is not my wish to mention that there are Muslims and people who adhere to Islam and are against terrorism but rather my wish is announce that I am convinced that the fundament of Islam has nothing to do with terrorism." CROWDS WATCHING
- Embargoed: 23rd May 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAAJG5CPBTBR70ZZA8MSPVGYS3U
- Story Text: A spokesman for Frankfurt's police said on Saturday (May 7) that some 450 people participated in a rally for Osama bin Laden in an outlying district of Germany's financial capital arranged by the 32-year old Muslim convert and self-styled preacher Pierre Vogel.
Although the event was initially banned by authorities, Vogel's lawyer said a Frankfurt court permitted the gathering under two main conditions, namely that it would take place outside the city centre and that he would not mention at all bin Laden directly or even indirectly.
"I just spontaneously had this idea. He was dumped into the ocean, no one held a prayer for the dead in his case, so we will simply do it then," he told reporters in Frankfurt on Saturday before the service began.
A Reuters cameraman on the scene said there were about 20 police vans and police presence was "massive", but that the event was peaceful with no outward indication that any of the participants were militant Islamists. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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