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Rüdiger Safranski (Wikipedia)

Does Islam belong in Germany? Debate erupts again

The German writer Rüdiger Safranski has warned against a strengthening of political Islam in Europe aided by leftists.

Published: March 18, 2018, 7:23 am

    Hamburg

    “Political Islam is hostile to our way of life,” Safranski told Der Spiegel. It is not about the individual Muslim who lives his faith, but about the political Islam itself. Whoever does not fight this will rightly have to fear it. In this respect, Europe is not doing well, he said.

    In the coming years, Islamic mass immigration will be the crucial task to be mastered. In the face of huge flows of migrants, the question arises whether the liberal society will be maintained in the future. “And I’m afraid we will not be able to do it with the current naivety,” warned the writer. The “inflationary chatter of xenophobia and Islamophobia” aimed at silencing conservatives must therefore finally stop, Safranski warned, because it blocks thinking.

    The existing problems would have to be considered and named realistically, he suggested.

    There is “above all the duty to consider the degree of compatibility,” said the literary scholar. “In any case, the larger the influx, the lower the chance of integration.”

    Safranksi expressly warned against equating conservative positions with radical right-wing extremism.

    “Conservatives are those who take the separation of powers seriously in all areas.” He therefore hopes “that one does not continue to commit the mistake that is currently being made: To designate the AfD a far-right party”.

    It is about the awakening of the conservative consciousness. “I warn against this delirium of equating the conservative right with far-right Nazis. That is irresponsible. On the other hand, we must be interested in helping conservatism become reputable.

    Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has meanwhile contradicted the statement of her Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), who said Islam is not part of Germany.

    According to her spokesman Steffen Seibert, the chancellor believes Islam also belongs to Germany.

    Although the historical character of Germany is “partly Christian and partly Jewish”, millions of Muslims also reside in Germany. “On the basis of our values ​​and legal system”, their religion now also belongs to Germany, Seibert explained.

    On Friday Seehofer told the Bild newspaper that Islam was not part of Germany. The country has Christian customs such as a free Sunday, religious holidays or rituals such as Easter, Pentecost and Christmas. The Muslims living here, however, belonged to Germany he explained.

    But Seehofer’s statement was heavily criticised by the Greens. The CSU continue their “fatal course by campaigning for the AfD,” said the Green Bundestag deputy Jürgen Trittin. An Interior minister who sees it as his first task to split the public, was a misfit, he said.

    Already in 2010, there had been a public debate about whether Islam was part of Germany. The then Federal President Christian Wulff had said so in his speech on the Day of German Unity. Merkel had subsequently supported his statement: “We should be quite open and say: Yes, that’s part of us,” she advised her party.

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