Merkel: Germany doesn’t have “too much Islam” but “too little Christianity”
Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans debating Muslim integration to stand up more for Christian values, saying Monday the country suffered not from “too much Islam” but “too little Christianity.”
Addressing her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, she said she took the current public debate in Germany on Islam and immigration very seriously. As part of this debate, she said last month that multiculturalism there had utterly failed.
Some of her conservative allies have gone further, calling for an end to immigration from “foreign cultures” — a reference to Muslim countries like Turkey — and more pressure on immigrants to integrate into German society.
Merkel told the CDU annual conference in Karlsruhe that the debate about immigration “especially by those of the Muslim faith” was an opportunity for the ruling party to stand up confidently for its convictions.
“We don’t have too much Islam, we have too little Christianity. We have too few discussions about the Christian view of mankind,” she said to applause from the hall.
Germany needs more public discussion “about the values that guide us (and) about our Judeo-Christian tradition,” she said. “We have to stress this again with confidence, then we will also be able to bring about cohesion in our society.”
The slow death of multiculturalism in Europe
The following is a guest contribution. Reuters is not responsible for the content and the views expressed are the authors’ alone. Ibrahim Kalin is senior advisor to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. This article first appeared in Today’s Zaman in Istanbul and is reprinted with its permission.
By Ibrahim Kalin
Has multiculturalism run its course in Europe? If one takes a picture of certain European countries today and freezes it, that would be the logical conclusion.
The European right is thriving on anti-immigrant attitudes and is likely to continue to reap the benefits in the short term. But there are forces that are sure to keep multiculturalism alive whether we like it or not.
Take Germany as an example. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said bluntly that Germany has failed to integrate large immigrant communities. The complaint is that most Turks and Muslims who came to Germany in the 1960s to jumpstart the German economy after World War II have not integrated into German society. They kept their language, religion and most of their cultural habits. Instead of blending in, they created their own parallel societies.
But is it logical to conclude that multiculturalism is dead because certain European countries have failed to integrate their minority communities? First of all, what some European countries present as multicultural policies have very little to do with multiculturalism. Again Germany is a case in point. German governments welcomed Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish workers in the 1950s and 1960s and treated them as “guest workers.” But it never occurred to them that these so-called guest workers were also human beings with social and familial needs just like any other people. As a result, the German governments made very little or no effort in creating a social and political environment for them to integrate.
Germany holds inflamed debate on Islam and migration
Germany’s inflamed public debate about Islam and integration risks serious overheating as politicians compete to make ever tougher statements criticizing Muslims immigrants they accuse of refusing to fit in here.
The escalating row, sparked off when a Bundesbank board member slammed Muslims as dim-witted welfare spongers, has mixed some social problems and some Muslim customs into a vision of Islam as a looming menace to German society.
When President Christian Wulff tried to build bridges by saying Islam was now part of German society, critics retorted the country was based on “Judeo-Christian values” and should not accept any more immigrants from foreign cultures.
Amid the uproar, many politicians and media have lumped together about four million residents — Turks, Arabs, Afghans, converts and others, many with German citizenship — simply as Muslims and tarred them all with problems many do not have.
The debate crackles with harsh terms like “Germanophobia” and “integration refusers” that signal growing frustration with the difficulty Germany has had with people it allowed into the country but did not welcome into the society.
“The discourse about Muslims in Germany is gradually taking on hysterical forms,” wrote Andreas Petzold, editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Stern. “It’s very off-putting to watch this cascade of debates that, in the end, all focus on Islam.”
Constitution, not sharia, is supreme law in Germany – Merkel
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Muslims must obey the constitution and not sharia law if they want to live in Germany, which is debating the integration of its 4 million-strong Muslim population.
In the furore following a German central banker’s blunt comments about Muslims failing to integrate, moderate leaders including President Christian Wulff have urged Germans to accept that “Islam also belongs in Germany.”
Merkel , the daughter of a Protestant pastor brought up in East Germany who now leads the predominantly Catholic CDU party, said Wulff had emphasised Germany’s “Christian roots and its Jewish roots.”
“Now we obviously also have Muslims in Germany. But it’s important in regard to Islam that the values represented by Islam must correspond with our constitution,” said Merkel on Wednesday. “What applies here is the constitution, not sharia.”
Last month, Merkel said Germans had for too long failed to grasp how immigration was changing their country and would have to get used to the sight of more mosques in their cities.
Mosques to become bigger part of German life – Chancellor Angela Merkel
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germans had for too long failed to grasp how immigration was changing their country and would have to get used to the sight of more mosques in their cities.
Germany, home to at least 4 million Muslims, has been divided in recent weeks by a debate over integration sparked by disparaging remarks about Muslim immigrants by an outspoken member of the country’s central bank.
“Our country is going to carry on changing, and integration is also a task for the society taking up the immigrants,” Merkel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Saturday. “For years we’ve been deceiving ourselves about this. Mosques, for example, are going to be a more prominent part of our cities than they were before,” she added.
The uproar sparked by the Bundesbank’s Thilo Sarrazin, who argued Turkish and Arab immigrants were failing to integrate and swamping Germany with a higher birth rate, is one of several recent prominent disputes touching on religion and integration. Read the full story by Dave Graham here.
In the interview, Merkel also said “we now have to ask the question whether we should train imams here in our country who accept the principles of our state and legal order, or whether preachers should continue in the next few decades to come mostly from Turkey.
“I said that mosques will be a more prominent part of our urban landscape than before. Our constitution guarantees freedom of religion. I also say that everyone must respect our laws and all articles of our constitution. We cannot allow parallel societies where our basic rights, for example the equality of man and woman, do not apply. Only on the basis of our constitution can we live together in tolerance and respect. Everyone who lives here must accept that.”
from Global News Journal:
German banker bows out after stirring race, religion debate
A German central banker, Thilo Sarrazin, whose outspoken comments on race and religion sparked a fierce national debate unexpectedly quit the Bundesbank board on Thursday evening, sparing Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Christian Wulff and Bundesbank President Axel Weber a messy legal and political battle.
But Sarrazin, 65, made it clear that he will not go away and plans to use his new-found fame to press forward with the issues tackled in his best-selling book: that Muslims are undermining German society and threatening to change its character and culture with their higher birth rate. Whether Germans like his views or not, there is no denying that Sarrazin has struck a chord.
"It seemed to me to be too risky...to try to push forward against the entire political establishment and 70 percent of the media," Sarrazin told hundreds of people at a book reading in Potsdam near Berlin. "That would have been arrogant and wouldn't have worked. That's why I'm making this strategic retreat now and will tackle the issues that are important to me."
Despite widespread condemnation from political leaders, opinion polls showed there is widespread public support for at least some of Sarrazin's observations in his bestselling book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" ("Germany does away with itself").
Some of his book's more explosive passages include:
* "In every European country, due to their low participation in the labour market and high claim on state welfare benefits, Muslim migrants cost the state more than they generate in added economic value. In terms of culture and civilisation, their notions of society and values are a step backwards."
* "I don't want my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to live in a mostly Muslim country where Turkish and Arabic are widely spoken, women wear headscarves and the day's rhythm is determined by the call of the muezzin."
I don’t think very many people in Germany have anything against the hard working Turkish immigrant of the sixties that tried to the best of his abilities to learn German and fit in.
In Germany, just as in the US, the immigrants who don’t, or can’t integrate into the mainstream society are a problem.
As the Germans say, “what if we would go to their Muslim countries and insist that we can drink beer, and lie on the beach in bikinis? Where would the equality be then?”
German central banker in row over Muslims and Jews resigns
A German central bank board member who caused outrage with remarks about Muslim immigrants and Jews resigned on Thursday after coming under pressure from political leaders including Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Bundesbank said Thilo Sarrazin, 65, who accused Turks and Arabs of exploiting the welfare state, refusing to integrate and lowering the average intelligence, would leave his post at the end of the month.
Sarrazin confirmed he had stepped down during a book reading in Potsdam near Berlin. “I found it too risky in the current atmosphere … to stand up to the entire political and media establishment. That would be presumptuous and would not have worked,” he said. “So, a strategic retreat and now (I will) work on the topics that are important to me.”
He had already been relieved of some of his central bank responsibilities over remarks he made last year about immigrants but the strict independence of the central bank made it difficult to have him removed.
Sarrazin’s resignation, announced late on Thursday, means President Christian Wulff will no longer have to decide whether to approve the bank’s request to remove him, an awkward choice that threatened to expose Merkel to a backlash from conservative voters.
The Financial Times Deutschland newspaper wrote “Sarrazin does away with himself” — a play on the title of his new bestselling book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany does away with itself).
German Chancellor Merkel honours Mohammad cartoonist at press award
Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to freedom of speech on Wednesday at a ceremony for a Dane whose cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad provoked Muslim protests that led to 50 deaths five years ago.
Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany, recalled her joy over the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. “Freedom for me personally is the happiest experience of my life,” Merkel, 56, said at the conference on press freedom in Potsdam near Berlin.
“Even 21 years after the Berlin Wall fell the force of freedom stirs me more than anything else,” she said. She called press freedom a “precious commodity”.
Honoured at the event was Kurt Westergaard, who drew the most controversial of 12 cartoons of Mohammad which angered Muslims worldwide after appearing in a Danish paper in 2005. Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam to be offensive, and Westergaard’s cartoon portrayed Mohammad with a turban resembling a bomb. At least 50 people died in riots by enraged Muslims in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Aiman Mazyek of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany said in a statement: “Merkel is honouring the cartoonist who in our view trampled on our prophet and trampled on all Muslims.”
use this “Freedom” ideology for “holocaust” & “911″ and abot their interogation.. why double standard..wait ofr the time when we becom standard and benchmark of ytthe world , so your treacherous,cunning, twisty long-term, slow poisonous policies,to keep muslims undermined, submisive ,sorry for itslf..tiem never remains the same and yes history repeats itself you are one” we muslims are “One again” INSHALLAH!!
German Jews want central banker sacked for comments on Jews and Muslims
Germany’s Jewish community has urged the central bank to sack a board member who polarised the nation by making disparaging comments about Muslim immigrants and asserting that Jews have a particular genetic makeup.
Dieter Graumann, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said on Tuesday that Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin was out of line, even as polls showed many Germans support his views.
Sarrazin, 65, has published a book — Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany does away with itself) — in which he argues Muslim immigrants are undermining German society, refusing to integrate and sponging off the state, according to excerpts in the media.
Here’s a selection of our recent coverage of this story in English and German:
German govt calls Bundesbanker’s remarks about Muslims offensive
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s finance minister and spokesman have spoken out forcefully against disparaging comments about Muslim immigrants by a board member of the central bank, raising pressure on him to resign.
The Bundesbank’s Thilo Sarrazin, who has previously caused outrage with outspoken criticism of Turks and Arabs living in Germany, took aim at Muslims again in a new book which has been serialised in a popular daily newspaper this week.
Arguing that Muslims undermined German society, married “imported brides” and had a bad attitude, Sarrazin, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), has provoked a storm of criticism from the country’s main political parties.
On Wednesday, Merkel’s chief spokesman Steffen Seibert said many people would find the remarks “offensive” and “defamatory”, and that the chancellor was concerned. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), told reporters he “would be ashamed if a leading member of my party had behaved this way,” when asked about the 65-year-old Sarrazin’s comments.
He stressed, however, the central bank was independent.
Sarrazin has denied that he is stirring up racism. “I am not a racist,” he told Die Zeit. book addresses cultural divisions, not ethnic ones.”
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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How about that? A politician that says something that makes sense. With an attitude like that she will not be around long. Especially with the attitude of the press that is scared out of their pants about the response of the Islamic terrorists that call themselves Muslims these days. The press will find countless reasons why she should not offend them like that to protect their butts but it will not alter the truth of what she says.