National team defender Antonio Rüdiger and the German Football Federation (DFB) have filed a criminal complaint against a journalist who made critical remarks online in reference to a post from Rüdiger at the start of the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan.
Rüdiger, a practising Muslim, posted a photo of himself in a white robe on a prayer mat on March 11 on Instagram, with his right index finger pointing up, and the caption "May the almighty accept our fasting and prayers."
Julian Reichelt, the former editor in chief of the Bild paper, said on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday that the raised index finger was a Islamist gesture.
That prompted Rüdiger and the DFB to file the complaint on Monday relating to insult or defamation, inciting offence and incitement to hatred.
Rüdiger's management and the DFB confirmed the complaint to dpa, filed on Monday to the Berlin prosecutors office by Rüdiger, and the Central Unit for the Suppression of Internet Crime (ZIT) in Frankfurt by the DFB.
Reichelt maintained his view in another X post late on Monday and insisted: "Even and especially because it is about a popular national player you can't allow yourself to be intimidated ... What Antonio Rüdiger and the DFB are using here are methods of intimidation."
Germany's interior ministry was quoted by the Bild paper, which first reported on the case, as saying that Rüdiger's gesture "is to be understood as a profession of faith and can therefore be categorised as unproblematic in terms of public safety.
"This applies regardless of the fact that Islamist groups are appropriating this symbol and misusing it for their own purposes."
The ministry added that raising the finger could be seen as a sign of Salafist or Islamist radicalisation in certain contexts, if actors deliberately make use of this ambiguity.
"It depends on the individual case," the ministry said.