Wulff, who once famously stated that Islam is now also a part of German life, said that the Islamic world was gravely destabilized, with fundamentalism stretching from north Africa across the Middle East, the Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Wednesday.
He claimed that Muslims feared living through a "global military confrontation" between Sunnis and Shiites that could parallel the 30 Years' War between Protestants and Catholics that devastated Europe.
“Everyone should do more to make this conflict smaller rather than bigger,” he said.
But Berlin-based Islam researcher Dr Ralph Ghadban told The Local that Wulff had misunderstood the conflicts going on in the Muslim world.
“Of course there is a confessional conflict between Sunni and Shia in the Middle East, but in North Africa, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, it's a battle between traditional Islam and Salafism, and both are Sunni traditions,” he pointed out. [The Local] Read more
