Instead of giving away funds to build 200 mosques in Germany, Saudi Arabia should take in refugees fleeing from the civil war in Syria, German officials said on Monday.
Conservative politicians in Germany attacked the plan of Saudi King Salman to finance the construction of places of worship for Syrian refugees, calling it "cynical" given that Saudi Arabia is making thousands of refugees of its own in its military camp in Yemen, according to the Express.
"No, it is more than cynical. This is no Muslim Brotherhood. Where is the solidarity in the Arab world?" asked Andrea Scheuer, general secretary of the CSU party in Bavaria, which is Chancellor Angela Merkel's ally in the state.
Stephan Mayer, domestic policy spokesman of both the CSU and Merkel's CDU in parliament in Berlin, echoed a similar point, adding, "Germany does not need a cash donation to build 200 mosques but solidarity with the refugees."
CDU Deputy Chairman Armin Laschet, meanwhile, said Saudi Arabia should also stop financing the Islamic State group, which has been fighting government forces in Syria and Iraq.
The Saudi offer to shoulder the cost of constructing 200 mosques in Germany comes as tens of thousands of migrants head to the Hungarian border, many of them on their way to Germany, which is expecting 800,000 migrants this year alone.
Mail Online said the Saudi offer was made through diplomatic channels and published in Lebanese newspaper Al Diyar last week.
The mosque construction scheme was reportedly the idea of the Saudi King, who is apparently content "to give the asylum seekers a wide berth in his own land."
King Salman came to the throne of the oil-rich nation earlier this year and is planning to fund places of worship despite not giving refugees asylum in his country allegedly because of fears that they could upset the balance that allows the king absolute rule, the Express said.
