Category Archives: Germany

A right-wing extremist, who me? Wilders objects to inclusion in German pamphlet on far right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zwischen propaganda und mimikryPVV leader Geert Wilders has demanded the German ambassador explain why he and the anti-islam party are mentioned in a 32-page leaflet warning of the dangers posed by far-right political groupings.

The brochure, paid for by the German justice ministry, states that right-wing populist and radical parties could be a breeding ground for terrorism. Wilders is mentioned twice by name and one section includes his photograph. The folder also explains how neo-nazi strategists use social networks.

Wilders used the microblogging service Twitter to urge the Dutch government to distance itself from this “scandalous” statement and said questions will be asked in parliament.

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Court to rule on Muslim prayer in German schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In a landmark case, Germany’s Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig will rule on Wednesday whether schools need to provide practicing Muslim pupils with a place and the opportunity to pray.

The case revolves around Yunus M., who was 14 years old when he was barred from observing midday prayers in the corridor of his school in Berlin. Although Muslims have been praying in German schools for decades, his case marks the first time German courts have had to rule on the issue.

“I think the case has been hyped from both sides. Now, we have almost reached the final legal stage and that’s why it’s now turned into a political debate,” said Aiman Mazyek, of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims. “In the past, schools have been more pragmatic and laid-back about the issue, but now that has been pushed back.”

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German security services failed to take far-right terrorism seriously

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A handout picture from a surveillance camera shows two of the suspected 'doner murderers', during a bank robbery in Arnstadt

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives urged her on Tuesday to step up the fight against right-wing extremists following the chance discovery that a group of neo-Nazis had been murdering immigrants for years.

Merkel has described as a national disgrace the existence of a cell, called the National Socialist Underground, whose members are now suspected of killing between 2000 and 2007 at least nine immigrants, eight Turks and a Greek, and a police woman.

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Germany: authorities discuss surveillance of Islamophobic right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

German anti-mosque protestorOfficials from the BfV, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, will discuss the country’s increasingly vocal Islamophobe scene at a meeting on Thursday. There have been calls to put right-wing populist and anti-Muslim groups under increased surveillance.

Islamophobes in Germany could come under increased surveillance by the country’s domestic intelligence agency. There are concerns that the anti-Muslim scene is becoming increasingly dangerous, and some intelligence officials want it to be subject to greater scrutiny, despite stringent German privacy laws.

The subject will be discussed at a meeting on Thursday between the president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Heinz Fromm, and the agency’s leaders in the 16 German states. Officials in Bavaria are considering putting right-wing populists under observation as a new form of extremism, while Hamburg has declared it is watching an internet discussion forum similar to anti-Islamic website “Politically Incorrect” (PI).

A spokesman from the North Rhine-Westphalia interior ministry told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper that PI was not currently under observation by intelligence agents, but that the blog was being read closely and that the opinions and comments published on it were “undemocratic.” The xenophobic comments were calculated to “incite young people”, the spokesman added.

Most states are reluctant, however, and the federal interior ministry has also not yet committed itself on the matter. In essence, the question is whether the hatred of Muslims is enough to endanger freedom of religion and international understanding – or whether it is a radical but legitimate expression of opinion by individual authors within the limits of the constitution.

Spiegel, 27 September 2011

German far right loses out in Berlin state election

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Berlin election posters

Coverage of the Berlin state election has concentrated on the remarkable rise of the Pirate Party, which won 8.5% of the vote and 15 seats in the state parliament. But it also worth taking time to celebrate the disastrous results for parties of the Islamophobic far right, who gained publicity during the election campaign with their provocative political posters but failed to attract the voters.

They didn’t win a single seat in the state parliament and the best any of them did was the 2.2% of the vote gained by the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, a more traditionally neo-Nazi party that did have the advantage of an established organisation and name recognition. Bürgerbewegung pro Deutschland, which is associated with the Austrian Freedom Party, got only 1.2%. And René Stadtkewitz’s Die Freiheit, whose founding conference was attended by Daniel Pipes and whose election campaign enjoyed the public backing of Geert Wilders, got less than 1%.

Pro Deutchland will no doubt take consolation from the fact that their main support lies in Cologne. But given that Stadtkewitz’s own political base was in Berlin, the humiliating wipe-out his party has suffered there surely indicates that it has no political future. A statement on the Freiheit website co-signed by Stadtkewitz tries to remain upbeat, claiming that the disillusioned 40% of the electorate who did not vote can still be won to his party’s Islamophobic, Eurosceptic programme. But Die Freiheit is clearly dead in the water.

As the popularity of Thilo Sarrazin’s notorious book Deutschland schafft sich ab indicates, there is a substantial section of the German people who are receptive to anti-Muslim propaganda. But so far, thankfully, no party of the extreme right in Germany has been able to translate that into significant electoral support.

Spiegel on Islamophobia in the USA

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ullrich Fichtner of Spiegel interviews Brigitte Gabriel of ACT! for America:

To support her ideas, Gabriel jumps from the 7th to the 21st century and back, from the suras of the Koran to Europe’s transformation into “Eurabia,” from the Islamic militant group Hezbollah to American textbooks, and from the Crusades to the massacre of Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics (which she seems to think took place in 1971, rather than 1972). She juggles Hitler and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini and explains why each and every devout Muslim is a potential terrorist, and how all the pieces fit together in one grand scenario of doom: America is being infiltrated. Sharia law is coming soon. The government is looking away. Government agencies are asleep at the wheel.

The problem has less to do with the fact that nothing, or next to nothing, of what Gabriel and her disciples are spreading among the American people is actually true. The problem is that many Americans – perhaps half, perhaps the majority – see the world today in a very similar way.

Problem is not multiculturalism but Muslims, says German law professor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

RT interviews Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider:

RT: Multiculturalism has failed, say European leaders. But what are the actual consequences of that failure?

KAS: If by multiculturalism you mean people from southern Europe, Germany, northern Europe, Hungary, Poland, Russia, all European nations, living together, then no, it has not failed. There is no problem at all.

The problem is with the Muslims. It’s not the people who constitute the problem, but Islam. And Islam comes with Muslim people. They build active groups that promote Islam and advocate the establishment of Sharia law. And Sharia law, particular its criminal section, is absolutely impossible for European relationships. We have religious pluralism in Europe and not a single religion is dominant. But Islam is the religion that tolerates another religion as long as it has no power.

(Via Islam in Europe)

Berlin court rules far-right posters can remain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

NPD election posterA Berlin court ruled Wednesday that campaign posters for the far-right National Democratic Party with the slogan “step on the gas” may remain on display.

The placard is one of several the far-right party is using in an effort to attract votes for upcoming Berlin state elections. One shows caricatures of Muslim immigrants on a flying carpet with the slogan “have a nice flight home.” Another bears the slogan “step on the gas,” with a picture of the party’s leader on a motorcycle.

Berlin’s Kreuzberg district had ordered the posters taken down, saying they violated German incitement laws. But the Berlin state court ruled Wednesday that the posters were protected under freedom of speech laws. It noted that although the “step on the gas” poster “could well be intended to arouse associations with Nazi atrocities,” it could also have other meanings.

Associated Press, 7 September 2011