Schroeder greets supporters in an election campaign rally in Trier. (Reuters)

By Ahmed Al-Matboli, IOL Correspondent

BERLIN, September 17, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – German Muslim leaders have appealed to the 500,000 eligible Muslim voters to be positive and cast their ballot in numbers to choose the country’s next chancellor in the general elections on Sunday, September 18.

"The majority of permanent immigrants refrain from taking part in the elections," Oguz Ucuncu, the secretary general of the Milli Gurus Islamic organization, said in a statement on their Web site.

"Muslim immigrants, men and women, should take part in shaping their country’s future and theirs."

The statement said right-wing parties have been drumming up support by playing the security card, calling for more restrictions on immigrants and opposing an EU membership to Muslim Turkey.

"These xenophobic parties should bear in mind that they are poisoning the country’s social atmosphere," it warned.

Incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his conservative challenger Angela Merkel launched the final day of the election campaign Saturday, September 17, championing rival visions for the future of Europe 's biggest economy.

Polls show Merkel is well on her way to becoming Germany 's first woman chancellor, but a resurgent Schroeder may keep her from forming a government with her chosen partner, the pro-business Free Democrats.

Personal Duty

A library photo of a female German Muslim voting in the last parliamentary election.

Ayatollah Sayed Abbas, the imam of the Islamic Center in Hamburg, said voting is a "duty on each person who is acting with a sense of responsibility toward his/her German society."

He said Islam encourages Muslims to play a positive role in society and disapproves of negative attitudes.

The Association of German Muslims did not endorse a certain candidate and encouraged Muslims to vote for whomever lives to their aspirations.

It said Muslim eligible voters have increased this year to an unprecedented 500,000.

The association stressed that the neck-and-neck chancellorship race makes the Muslim vote crucial in setting the future course of the country.

With between 20 and 30 percent of the electorate still undecided, Merkel and Schroeder were zig-zagging the country in the final hours to promote their platforms.

Islamische Zeitung newspaper said that some 20,500 Germans of Turkish origin have been stripped of their German citizenship, including 6,000 in the southern state of Bavaria , for keeping their Turkish citizenship.

The German law bans dual citizenship.

Turkey Again

Nadeem Elias, the chairman of the Supreme Council of Muslims in Germany, said the council does not prefer a candidate to another.

But he cited a visit by Schroeder to the office of Turkish mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper on Thursday, September 15, during which the chancellor endorsed Turkey ’s right to join the euro bloc.

He said the visit would win Schroeder votes from German Muslims in general and Turks, who make up the majority of the 3.2 million Muslim minority, in particular.

Schroeder is also a long-time advocate of full membership to Turkey.

Turkey has emerged as a key theme in the campaign, with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) favoring only a "privileged partnership" for Ankara.

Pundits said that the Muslim vote is likely to reward Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD) for its anti-Iraq war position and pro-Muslim policies.

Up to 90 percent of the Muslim voters backed Schroeder in the 2002 general election.