Germany probes Iran-linked Mustafa Institute in Berlin - Bild

Germany's intelligence services are investigating alleged espionage activities involving 700 people linked to the Iranian state-run Al-Mustafa Institute in Berlin, according to the Bild newspaper.

The report coincides with diplomatic tensions between Berlin and Tehran, following the execution of German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Shahrmad on October 28.

Bild previously reported that the Berlin-based Al-Mustafa Institute is a key focus of German authorities as they investigate whether it serves as a recruitment platform for Tehran.

In its latest report, partially titled "Mullahs are Spying in Germany," Bild claims that German investigators are examining three secret lists of names. These reportedly include a list of 63 individuals holding German passports, a student directory from the international Al-Mustafa University containing 551 people connected to Germany, and a list of 78 trainees from Germany. The newspaper did not disclose the source behind this report, stating only that it relied on information in its possession.

The German domestic intelligence agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Iran International.

When asked for comment, a spokeswoman for Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV), Isabelle Kalbitzer, told Iran International she could not provide further details on the matter. She added that inquiries regarding potential actions, such as a ban on the Berlin-based Institute, should be directed to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's clerical establishment has used religious organizations to bolster its influence in the West, with the Al-Mustafa International University playing a key role through its branches in numerous countries, including Germany.

The Al-Mustafa Institute in Berlin, founded in 2016, requests donations via PayPal on its website to "directly support projects that aim to make well-founded Islamic knowledge more accessible in German-speaking regions."

In 2020, the US sanctioned the Iran-based university, noting that the Quds Force—the overseas operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—utilized the university's foreign branches for "intelligence collection and operations," including recruiting for pro-Iranian militias. The US Treasury said the University was also being sanctioned for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of the Quds Force. The Quds Force is known to be a significant financial backer of terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

In 2023, the dean of Iran's Al-Mustafa University publicly said that some officials of the new Taliban rule in Afghanistan have studied at the institution.

When asked to comment on the claims in Bild’s report, Julia Linner, a spokeswoman for Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND), told Iran International, “As a matter of principle, the [BND] never publicly comments on matters that concern potential intelligence information or activities. This does not amount to a statement on the accuracy of the facts. The [BND] reports to the Federal Government and the competent secret committees of the German parliament on relevant topics.”

In response to Bild’s report, conservative members of the opposition parties in Germany’s parliament have called for action, saying Interior Minister Nancy Faeser should shut down the Al-Mustafa Institute.

Christian Social Union MP Alexander Dobrindt said, “Iranian Islamist institutes on German soil should be closed immediately.” He emphasized that the threat from Iran is “obvious” and added, “The interior minister must no longer ignore this.” Dobrindt urged Faeser to “immediately ban these facilities.”

Christian Democratic Union MP Christoph de Vries, an expert on intelligence services, said that Faeser must explain “why she hasn’t closed the Mustafa Institute in Berlin long ago, while the organization has been on the sanctions lists in the USA and Canada for years.”

Iranian-German dissidents have also urged the federal government to close the Al-Mustafa Institute.

Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a political scientist and expert on the Islamic Republic, told Iran International that the Al-Mustafa Institute “is apparently not a religious university, but an Iranian-Islamist propaganda center that is run by the Quds Force unit of the Revolutionary Guards. There are said to be around seventy centers worldwide and the task of these centers is to attract international forces for terrorist activities in Europe and to recruit worldwide.”

“This means that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's networks will be expanded worldwide in such centers. Apart from this, spies were trained, recruited and led by the Quds Force unit in this center. Such spies obviously have the task of spying on Iranian exiles and opposition members or other objects that may be important for the totalitarian Islamist dictatorship and possibly defining them as terrorist targets,” he added.

The IRGC has been designated as a terrorist organization by several countries, including the US and most recently by Canada.

Wahdat-Hagh, who supports the closure of the Institute in Berlin, also noted that “it is closely involved and works together with the banned Islamic Center Hamburg and more importantly with the University of Religions and Denominations, which also has a close cooperation with German universities.”

In July, Germany shut down the Imam Ali Mosque, operated by the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH), for propagating extremism.

Activist Mina Ahadi, who lives in Cologne, told Iran International the “Mustafa Institute is part of the Iranian regime” and she and others have protested against its existence.

She added the Mustafa Institute “seeks to win over people from Lebanon and Afghanistan and turn them into terrorists.” She said some of these recruits have been sent to fight in Syria on behalf of the pro-Iran government Assad regime.

According to Wahdat-Hagh, “Such centers in Iran and around the world also ideologically train Islamist forces in order to join pro-Iranian terrorist groups such as Fatemiyoun, an Afghan paramilitary unit led by the Quds Forces that have experience in Syria, or the Pakistani pro-Iranian Zainebiyoun, or even the Houthis. They are propaganda centers for the export of the Islamic revolution, that is, for the export of terrorism.”

Ahadi, who has been targeted due to her opposition to the Iranian state, says she believes there are far more than the reported 700 spies working for the Mustafa Institute

Iran International sent requests for comment to the Al-Mustafa Institute, but they were not returned.