Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government responded to a written inquiry on the “mosque tax” and said it “is a possible way”. With this method, places of worship will be funded by taxes to be collected from Muslim communities.

Currently, Christians in Germany pay a 8% tax from their annual income as a “religious tax” to fund religious services.

There are an estimated 5 million Muslims in Germany, and they make up 6% of the population. The Government thinks the “mosque tax” should be regulated at the state level, as states have authority over religious/faith matters.

According to Die Welt, most of the states report they are ready to instate a mosque tax. The eastern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state government said they are open to the option to finance mosques with the current model used for churches. The state government said foreign influence and “risk of radicalization” can be reduced in Germany’s churches.

The southwestern Bade-Wurtemberg state government said they are ready to consider the idea of a Muslim tax against the threat of “importing radical islamist and anti-democracy tendencies”.

Many representatives in the coalition government said they are positive towards such a project against Turkey’s influence in the financing of mosques in Germany.

Some 900 mosques in Germany are being funded by DITIB, which directly answers to the AKP regime. German intelligence services have been talking about putting DITIB activities under surveillance since last year and members of this organization are accused of espionage.

Some members of the government have issued warnings in the past that “Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s dangerous ideologies are being imported to Germany through these mosques”.

This week, former chief of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Hans-Georg Maaßen stated that DITIB imams work for the Turkish intelligence.