The Youtube video from 2019 takes a hard line against the Shiite funeral march. A young woman expresses outrage at the ritual and is so shocked that she "feels sick", as she says. The men's tears as they beat on and on in pain and their bruises irritated her. In the middle of it all, she spots a boy, about which she expresses incomprehension.

According to the police, this is not the only negative reaction to the religious tradition, which has existed in some German cities for more than 25 years and in Bonn for around 15 years. "Every year we have a complaint about this, that the situation has an intimidating effect on citizens and children. This time, too, it caused a lot of astonishment," explains police spokesman Michael Beyer about the march last Sunday. In the same sentence, however, he explains that there have been no incidents with the believers in all these years.

Nevertheless, the police had imposed conditions. The organisers from the Indo-Pakistani Cultural Association Ya Hussain had already been told this in a cooperation meeting at the beginning of April. "In this meeting, it was discussed that from a police point of view, the place of assembly in Wenzelgasse as well as the performance of the ritual beating with a naked upper body were seen as legally critical," said Beyer. He added that it was not a matter of banning the funeral march, but of finding a compromise that was acceptable to everyone. "People should follow the funeral march without inconveniencing other citizens." In the letter to the Higher Administrative Court, they therefore argued that "a large number of children would inevitably be confronted with the gathering in Bonn city centre on the day of the gathering" and that "psychological injuries [...] were not unlikely". As a solution, it was suggested that participants should cover their upper bodies so that scars from previous self-flagellations would not be visible.

Samina Haider, spokesperson for the cultural association, describes herself and the believers as open to all suggestions. "We understand that the police wanted to move the gathering from Wenzelgasse because of the limited space due to other demos. The pressure on the authorities through complaints is also understandable," she says. Partly because of the Youtube video, they are now making sure that no children under the age of 14 take part. However, there are limits: When the religious ritual and its meaning are diluted. "By beating our own bodies, we want to express that we want to take the suffering of Imam Ali upon ourselves," Haider explains. He adds that this is explicitly not about hurting oneself. "It is important for us to be present in the inner cities. You can't send us to Jan Loh Square behind the town hall and thus forbid us to march.“

The Cologne Administrative Court agreed and overturned the conditions imposed by the police after a complaint by the cultural association on Friday. The Bonn authority then appealed, according to its own information as a matter of routine, to the Münster Higher Administrative Court (OVG), which on Saturday confirmed the Cologne ruling in the last instance, as OVG spokeswoman Gudrun Dahme explains. "The religiously based rite of mortification - even if it is not widespread in Germany, at least in the form of the use of violence against oneself - is probably known in principle to the majority of people," the judges ruled in summary proceedings. The assumption of the complaint that, from the perspective of uninvolved third parties, the impression is created that the displayed readiness to use violence against oneself could turn outwards at any time and lead to violence against third parties, does not find "sufficient factual basis". The fact that passers-by were irritated or possibly frightened by the sight of the assembly was not sufficient.

Church representatives in Bonn see religious freedom as a high good. Joachim Gerhardt from the Protestant church district of Bonn says: "Religious freedom does not mean that everyone can do what they want. But very much that we have to put up with things that are very foreign to us." Stefan Schultz, spokesman for the Bonn city deanery, also sees it that way. "The religions lead a constructive coexistence in Bonn. Freedom of religion is a great good in our country." Ilayda Maru (SPD), chairperson of the integration council of the city of Bonn, thinks that the police are interfering too much with the fundamental rights of citizens through the new assembly law in NRW. "Many Shiite believers had to flee to Germany because of their religion, because they are persecuted and oppressed in their home countries. In Germany, all people have the right to live out their religion freely and not be prevented from doing so, no matter what other people think of it, we all respect each other," she says. Jürgen Repschläger, who sits on the Integration Council for the Left Party, cannot understand the police's actions. "This is not about questions of taste, you can certainly ask those. This is about fundamental rights."

The cultural association wants to keep the funeral march, which is to take place again next year, in its current form. The police say that they are in contact with each other: "We don't know yet what the situation will be next year. Both the police and the cultural association see the court's decision as positive, regardless of the outcome. Because now there is legal clarity.

Original text: Nicolas Ottersbach / Translation: Mareike Graepel