Germany’s far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland(AfD), has adopted an anti-Islam manifesto at its conference over the weekend.
Delegates backed an election manifesto which states that Islam is not compatible with Germany’s constitution.
In addition, the party has called for curbs on immigration and bans on minarets and burqas.
Chancellor Merkel has repeatedly said that freedom of religion is guaranteed by Germany’s constitution and that Islam is welcome in the country.
Formed just three years ago on a eurosceptic platform, AfD has gained strength as the loudest protest voice against Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcome to refugees that brought over one million asylum seekers last year.
Polls indicate that it is now the third strongest party, with support of up to 14% of the population, and narrowly eclipsing the environmental Greens. It has no parliamentarians but does have members if half of Germany’s 16 regional state assemblies.
"In the summer of 2015, they gave us up for dead," AfD co-chair Frauke Petry told the 2,400 delegates, declaring that the party does not intend to settle for the role of opposition group or junior coalition partner, but should win the majority.
The party has tried to distance itself from the hardcore far-right and neo-Nazi movements. The congress agreed by 52% to dissolve the Saarland chapter because of its deep links with right-wing extremists groups.
"Islam is not part of Germany" ran a headline in the AfD policy paper agreed in a vote by some 2,400 members at the party congress in Stuttgart in a hall decorated with banners that read "Courage. Truth. Germany."
The paper demanded bans on minarets on mosques, the call to prayer, full-face veils for women and female headscarves in schools.
Some four million Muslims make up about 5% of the German population, many having arrived from Turkey in the 1960s and 1970s to take part in Germany’s economic miracle.
"We must not repeat the mistakes of the 60s and 70s and look abroad for labour migration," read a line from the party platform.
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