Ahmadiyya a "Parallel Society"? What Susanne Schröter Said on WELT (Sep 2026)

Ahmadiyya a "Parallel Society"? What Susanne Schröter Said on WELT

In September 2026, the German news channel WELT aired an episode of its debate show Meinungsfreiheit ("Freedom of Speech"). Watch the full episode here. Host Nena Brockhaus sat down with three guests:

• Susanne Schröter, professor, ethnologist and head of the Frankfurt Research Center for Global Islam (closed in Sep 2025)
• Bernd Siggelkow, founder of the Christian children's charity Die Arche
• Maulvi Sharjil Khalid (also spelled Scharjil Khalid), a Qadiani-Ahmadi imam.

Ahmadiyyafactcheck blog wrote about it and Zaitoon FM covered this episode too. I watched the whole thing and went through the German transcript line by line, so here is what was actually said.

How the debate started

Each guest brings one thesis. The first part was about German politics: the CDU, Friedrich Merz and the AfD. Then Khalid used his turn to argue that "Islamism" is the wrong word. In his view we should talk about religiously motivated extremism instead, and he gave examples from Christian and Jewish contexts as well.

Schröter and Siggelkow pushed back. Schröter said that in Europe we don't have to protect Christmas markets from Christians, and that the attackers are Muslim extremists. Khalid then said Muslim communities should be seen as partners against right-wing extremism. That is where the debate with Schröter got heated.

The Israel question

Schröter was the first to bring up Israel, at around 19:14. She said Ahmadiyya was against Israel even before the state was founded, and that the community disputes Israel's right to exist.

At 20:52 she added that she had read what the Caliph said about the 7 October attack. According to her, he wrote that the attack did more harm than good. Her point was that this is a very cold reaction to a massacre.

Khalid's reply was the usual one:

• Ahmadis are the only Muslim community with a presence in Israel (Haifa).
• After 7 October there was a peace prayer with 600 Jewish neighbors.
• Peace prayers were held at around 20 places in Germany.
• Rabbis are invited to his events, and he has visited Jewish families.
• Just before the show, the community held its 29th Jalsa Salana in Haifa, which he called a day of Jewish-Muslim encounter.

About the Caliph's quote, he said that what the Caliph warned about is exactly what happened afterwards.

"Muslims who go to mosque commit fewer crimes"

Khalid also cited studies saying that religion lowers crime, and that Muslims who attend mosque regularly are more likely to take part in democracy. Schröter did not accept this. Her reply was that the 9/11 attackers were all regular mosque-goers too. I think that one was easily refuted, because attendance alone tells you nothing about what is being preached.

Schröter: Ahmadis don't speak for Islam

Later (from 27:22 on), Khalid argued that Islam is the answer to the crisis of modernity. Schröter's reply was the most important moment of the show.

First, she said Khalid does not speak for Muslims. Most Sunnis don't even accept Ahmadis as Muslims and see them as heretics. She added that in the Palestinian territories Ahmadis are not liked, while in Israel they are well regarded. (and thats true cause we've all seen those videos of them hugging Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jalsa Haifa)

Then she described Ahmadiyya as a closed community, a "walking parallel society":

• Everything is directed inward.
• People marry within the community, and the marriages are arranged.
• Nobody can leave.
• The Caliph gives the orders and everyone follows.
• The 100-mosque programme comes from the Caliph, and mosques are built even where hardly any Ahmadis live.

She called this an authoritarian, leader-centered form of community. In her words, it is the opposite of modernity and of the Enlightenment, and the opposite of what the liberal, secular German constitutional state stands for.

My take

Anyone who grew up inside the community or has left it will recognise most of this. I'm not going to claim every word she said was perfect, but the core of it, a community built around one man and one organisation, is something Khalid did not really answer. He talked about peace prayers and interfaith visits. She was talking about structure and control.

That is also why the "parallel society" label matters in Germany. It doesn't stay a debate-show line. It affects how politicians, journalists and ordinary Germans see Ahmadiyya, and it was said to a national audience on one of the biggest news channels in the country. We have seen similar reactions elsewhere, for example when people in the UK learned about the Ahmadiyya headquarters in Tilford.

The community has a PR problem it cannot fix with a Jalsa and a few photos.

Final thoughts

Watch the episode yourself and decide. The Ahmadiyya part starts around 19:14 and the main exchange is between 27:22 and 29:43. If you want to read more about the people involved, I've linked everything above.

What do you think of Schröter's "parallel society" claim? Let me know in the comments.

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