'Islam Not Compatible With the Constitution' - Alternative for Germany

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the anti-immigration party's deputy leader Beatrix von Storch pledged that AfD would try to ban mosques and burqas.

"Islam is in itself a political ideology that is not compatible with the constitution. We are in favor of a ban on minarets, on muezzins and a ban on full veils," von Storch said.

MEP von Storch's remarks come just one month after AfD prevailed over Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party in various regional elections. The party managed to muster 24 percent of the vote in the region of Saxony-Anhalt, defeating even the left-wing Social Democrats.  

AfD has been soaring in popularity by tapping into the ballooning worries many Germans feel about the enormous influx of immigrants their country is letting in.

Only last year, Germany accepted more than one million migrants, most of them Muslims fleeing from conflict and extremist violence in Syria and elsewhere.

The specter of a looming clash of civilizations has only grown more real in the wake of New Year's Eve sexual assaults incidents in Cologne — when more than 1,000 German women were reportedly harassed by men of North African and Middle Eastern origins.

Merkel herself has been inching toward a more hard-line approach, even going as far as floating the idea of outlawing the full veil, or burqa. 

Still, it is in AfD's best interest to further up the ante, as the latest comments show.

"Islam is not a religion like Catholic or Protestant Christianity, but rather intellectually always associated with the takeover of the state," Alexander Gauland, who runs AfD's Brandenburg branch told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"That is why the Islamization of Germany is a danger."

Although Merkel's vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has repeatedly compared AfD's rhetoric to Hitler's Nazi party, this has not so far, dented the group's clout.