Jehovah's Witnesses target Muslim refugees in Germany

Fr Gary Albrecht, who is in charge of ideological communities in the diocese of Essen, said: “I have spoken to Jehovah’s Witnesses missionaries who have specifically learnt Arabic for this mission and who now offer their magazines in Arabic. They have geared themselves up for this new potential target group.”

Religious groups who were convinced that theirs was the only true religion saw a compelling necessity to save people of another belief, Albrecht said. Classical sects were also having difficulties in recruiting new members. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, were clearly stagnating and Scientology had a “massive image problem in Germany”, Albrecht explained.

“Some religious groups which are faced with a demographic problem, are therefore hoping for ‘fresh-cell therapy’ by recruiting refugees”, he said.

Asked how refugees, most of whom were Muslims, reacted to such attempts to convert them, Albrecht said he could imagine that many refugees had had enough not only of IS terrorism but also of Islam as a whole.

After what they had been through they might be drawn to Christianity: “They are glad to go to church without being discriminated against, persecuted or even killed,” he said.

And then there were those who were lonely and did not realise that they were being approached by an obscure sect, Albrecht said. “They are glad that someone is at least taking notice of them”.

There were, however, certainly many committed Muslims who wanted to remain Muslim, he pointed out.

Fr Albrecht said he was in contact with those responsible in the camps and they were always on the look out for people who said they were voluntary workers but actually wanted to proselytise. Such people were soon forbidden to enter the camps, Albrecht said.

“It is most important to differentiate between those who really want to help refugees and those who are bent on fishing for souls. Sects see refugees first and foremost as people to missionise, unlike the Churches who want to help people selflessly”, he explained.

Rick Fenton, spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK said: “Wherever people are and whatever their situation they need to know what the Bible says, so presumably the Witnesses in every country are looking to contact people wherever they may be living.”

“We translate our literature into over 800 languages and that’s irrespective of where people might be living,” he added. “They’ve got access to the literature and, particularly through the Bible, we try to translate it into as many languages as possible, of course that includes Arabic…People in every country in every situation need to hear the Bible’s message and so it has got to be translated.”

Scientologists were also said to be proselytising refugees in Germany but Fr Albrecht had not yet come across a case in the diocese of Essen.