The allegations are persistent. Forced marriages allegedly took place in Bern’s House of Religions, SRF announced last November. Several women reported being married against their will and without prior civil marriage in the mosque in the house. In Switzerland, it is forbidden to religiously marry a couple without prior civil marriage.
Imam Mustafa Memeti (60) of the Muslim Association of Bern, which manages the mosque, was shocked. The mosque was abused for forced marriages.
resigned in April
Now Memeti announces his resignation as imam. He will retire from the club at the end of April, he said in a statement. “Forced marriages are a heinous and great crime,” he is quoted as saying. Events continued to amaze him.
In the past, Memeti has been called a “model imam”, he is considered liberal and spoke out for a burqa ban, for example. In 2014 he was named “Swiss of the Year” by the “SonntagsZeitung” for his commitment to combating extremism.
He tells Blick that the association still has no knowledge of forced marriages that have taken place. After the allegations had become known, he had expressed the suspicion that an imam unknown to him might have carried this out in secret. To this day it is unclear who it was. The House of Religions had filed a complaint. Internal measures were also taken.
“Must and want to take responsibility”
It is important that it becomes fully public, Memeti writes in the press release. The establishment of a Swiss Islam requires Muslim communities “that take public responsibility and do not retreat into parallel worlds”. “I must and therefore want to take responsibility for the lack of organization.”
He has now been working as an imam for more than 30 years, he tells Blick. “I’m not young anymore and I think it’s good to pave the way for a new generation.”