According to historian David Motadel, "no person shaped the history of Islam in early twentieth-century Germany more than Idris".

[1] During 1920s, for a while, Idris became a part of the Finnish Tatar community, where he was known as a demanding teacher and a Pan Turkic figure.

For the prisoners of Islamic faith, there was a separate cemetery at Zahrensdorf, called Efrenfriedhof, where approximately 400 Tatars were buried.

He also helped the prisoners in various ways; for example, he organized returns to home for them, or the possibility to emigrate to Turkey, and an opportunity to learn German.

[3] Idris as well helped some prisoners abroad, like fellow teacher Gibadulla Murtasin, who was captured during the war and transferred to Denmark.

[6] In late 1920's, Alimcan Idris moved to Finland where he operated as a teacher for the children of the Tatar community.

Idris worked at the Eastern Division of the Political Department of the German Foreign Ministry (das Orientreferat der Politischen Abteilung des Auswertigen Amts), where he produced anti-semitic National Socialist propaganda.

[9] However, it has also been noted, that Idris was a devout Muslim and "was not hostile to other religions and considered also Judaism in its origin to be equal revelation of God".

[3][11] Idris went back to visit Finland multiple times during the 1940s and 1950s, especially Tampere, where its Tatar community would invite him to their celebrations.