BERLIN: A German Muslim leader drew a parallel between a nationalist party and the Nazis on Monday after a prominent party member said that Islam is incompatible with Germany's constitution.

Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has seen its support swell on opposition to the migrant influx to Europe. It also has talked tough about Islam, which deputy leader Beatrix von Storch described in a weekend newspaper interview as "a political ideology that is incompatible with the constitution." She advocated a ban on minarets, muezzins and full veils.

Von Storch's comments came ahead of a congress April 30 at which the three-year-old AfD plans to debate and approve an official party program. A draft released last month didn't go as far, though it did state that Islam is not a part of Germany.

Aiman Mazyek, the head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims, retorted Monday that AfD itself "does not conform with the constitution."

He told NDR radio that "for the first time since Hitler's Germany, there is a party that discredits an entire religious community and existentially threatens it."

Asked about von Storch's comments, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said he wouldn't comment on parties' programs.

However, Seibert noted Merkel has said repeatedly that Islam is now a part of Germany, using a phrase that then-President Christian Wulff coined in 2010. He also pointed to a constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.