Germans more negative towards Muslims than other Europeans
Only about one third of Germans think positively of their Muslim neighbors, a much lower proportion than in other western European countries, according to a new poll published on Thursday. In contrast, 62 percent of Dutch and 56 percent of French people responding to the TNS Emnid survey indicated they had positive attitudes toward Muslims.
Detlef Pollack, a Muenster University sociologist who led the study, attributed Germans’ views to their lack of contact with Muslims compared to people in other nations surveyed. “The more often you meet Muslims, the more you view them as generally positive,” he said.
The survey broke down the German results into western and eastern responses, reflecting continuing divisions in the once-divided country. Only 34 percent in the west and 26 percent in the east had positive impressions of Muslims, it said.
Contact with Muslims also showed regional differences, with 40 percent of westerners but only 16 percent of easterners saying they occasionally met Muslims. French people appear to have the most contact with Muslims, 66 percent of those responding saying they had such contacts.
The survey was conducted before former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin plunged Germany into a heated debate over Muslim integration with a controversial best-selling book published in August.
Read the full story by Eric Kelsey here. There plenty more in this study — click here for the English-language press release.
250 years of integration vs debate over Muslims in Germany
Percy MacLean can call on 250 years of experience to weigh up how immigrants integrate in Germany. Since his Scottish ancestor arrived in 1753, the family has produced mayors, members of parliament and even a Nazi.
Today, the 63-year-old MacLean, a chief judge in Berlin’s administrative court, says Germany risks losing the openness that allowed his family to flourish for generations because of a divisive national debate over the integration of Muslims.
In an interview with Reuters, MacLean said tendentious arguments now being aired publicly contained the seeds of what could spawn the kind of right-wing populism and xenophobia Germany witnessed in the run-up to the Holocaust.
Muslims have been in the media spotlight since central banker Thilo Sarrazin stirred up a row this autumn by asserting Turkish and Arab families were dumbing down Germany, swamping it with a higher birth rate and threatening the indigenous culture.
“Things can get very explosive once you start mentioning genes and intelligence,” MacLean said. “Talking down to them is totally wrong. We are the ones who invited them over here.”
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.”
Berlin issues guidelines on integrating Muslim pupils in schools
If you’re a teacher in Germany and are unsure whether to allow your Muslim pupils to pray at school, to skip swimming lessons or wear the veil, you may want to consult a new handbook aimed at dealing with the sometimes tricky task of reconciling Muslim practices with German schooling.
Berlin’s Ministry for Education, Science and Research has just published a guide called “Islam and School” giving practical advice on how to resolve these issues and encourage “people to live together respectfully and peacefully”, which you can find in German here.
The guidelines aim to boost the integration of Germany’s Muslim community, Europe’s second largest Muslim population after France. Around 4 million Muslims live in Germany, meaning about 5 percent of the overall population.
The issue has come to the fore in recent weeks with former Bundesbanker Thilo Sarrazin made disparaging criticism of Muslim immigrants in a best-selling book warning of the demise of traditional German society.
“For years, society and schools have been faced with a variety of new duties and challenges. One of these big challenges is to have people from different traditions, cultural and religious affiliations living together peacefully and respectfully,” said Juergen Zoellner, Berlin Minister for Education, Science and Research, in the introduction to the booklet.
“This document should give insight into Islam and its diversity. In addition, the knowledge that Islam can be read and practised flexibly opens up room for manoeuvre for schools and Muslims both parents and pupils .. so that they can find pragmatic solutions for issues that arise.”
Germany seems to be treading a careful path in order to avoid the kinds of conflicts with its Muslim community that other countries have incurred, such as France which in 2004 banned pupils from wearing conspicuous signs of their religion at school, including headscarves.
I disagree. Most Americans have no issue with a muslim community center (not a mosque) renovating an empty building several blocks away from “ground zero”. The problem comes from the conservative side and the lesser educated right wing. If anything, at least liberals understand what America’s pledge of religious freedom means–even atheists like me.
The USA/Canada are melting pot societies. Europe, though more liberal, is a collection of states each with a specific culture (or two). Both sides of the Atlantic need to learn how to coexist without loosing what makes Western societies so vibrant and inclusive.
Maybe when people move from one nation to another they need to better understand what the cultural changes to their lives that will have. Perhaps staying within a muslim culture would be better for people with strong islamic convictions of religion that pits them against the existing culture of the nation they move to.
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 commentaries on Bundesbank’s Sarrazin after Jewish, Muslim remarks
Germany’s Bundesbank has voted to dismiss board member Thilo Sarrazin, whose remarks about Muslim immigrants and Jews have divided the country. Following are extracts from Friday’s German newspapers on the central bank’s decision, which must still be approved by the German President Christian Wulff.
BILD (Conservative mass circulation)
“President Christian Wulff is in a horrible jam. If he signs the order to fire Sarrazin, he’ll be viewed by millions of Germans as just another one of those jaundiced political leaders … but if he doesn’t sign it, he’ll have the chancellor and the entire political establishment against him.
“But if Wulff decides to read the book himself, he’ll see that it’s based on a lot of well-documented truths about immigrants, education and Germany’s social state. And unfortunately an appalling, vulgar Darwinism that reduces every person to a hostage of their genetic makeup.
“The bottom line is: it’s not enough to sack him.”.
BERLINER ZEITUNG (Centre-left)
Q+A – Why Sarrazin comments on Jews, Muslims cause outcry in Germany
German central banker Thilo Sarrazin has divided public opinion with remarks about Muslim immigrants and comments about the genetic make-up of Jews, prompting calls for him to step down.
Leading politicians have called for the Bundesbank to dismiss the 65-year-old, who has dominated headlines in the public furore surrounding the launch of his book, “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany does away with itself).
The Bundesbank has met to discuss Sarrazin’s fate this week, but has yet to announce a formal decision.
Following are some questions and answers about the case and why it has sparked such outcry in Germany.
WHAT CAUSED THE CONTROVERSY?
The same utilitarian argument made Thilo Sarrazin have been used against other minorities in other countries, including the United States. Fortunately, one’s worth as a human being goes beyond his usefulness in a commercial society.
Nonetheless, leaders of minorities around the world have a responsibility to further the education of their members. Moreover, each country has a responsibility to remove ALL roadblocks to minority education. Indeed, even with all the doors open, learning is long and tedious, and with no shortcuts for anyone.
Families that have invested in the education of their children know this, and also know that the desire must be planted early on in the child. Since many parents themselves do not see the significance of learning, this important ingredient of education is often missing. Community and church leaders can help in this regard.
In the end, it is all worth it as an informed human being is good for all of us, not just for those that invested in his education. Regarding his race or national origin, it is of concern to one no.
As for Sarrazin, like all bigots, he should be ignored. Those who think that perhaps he means well for Germany, should reflect that he has offered no solutions, whatsoever, with his criticism. This is the prime indication that his intentions are not honorable. By themselves then, his comments are both inflammatory and racist.
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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Thilo Sarrazin is of arab descent, the only thing which made him a German was his family adopting the protest religion. The German population is strictly under the control of the church, who pay ten percent of their income to the Church, unless they opt to leave the church. The church in germany is a very powerful institution in Germany and have deliberately kept its followers unaware of Islam, says the former chancellor of Germany Helmuth Schmidt. The xenophobia in Germany saw its climax during the third Reich when Jews became the main group which suffered. There is a lot of improvement in their outlook but certain elements such as the sarrazin keep bringing up Nazi philosophies about different races.
The statistics are misplaced and needs to be qualified.
Rex Minor