A
Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Germany: March 2018 by Soeten Kern,
4/21/18.
Anti-Semitism is running rampant at
German primary schools, according to Heinz-Peter Meidinger, president of the
President of the German Teachers' Association (Deutschen Lehrerverbandes, DL).
He also said that videos of beheadings are commonplace at German schools, and
that female pupils are being threatened with murder. "In chat forums like
WhatsApp, movies such as ISIS beheading videos are spreading like
wildfire."
"It is unacceptable that non-Muslim
and above all Jewish children have to be afraid of going to school in this
country because they are being labeled as 'unbelievers' and even threatened
with death.... Since autumn... Kuwait Airways is allowed to discriminate
against Jews at Frankfurt Airport, and the Federal Government does not object.
Let us not fool ourselves: it is the Federal Government, which, for
inexplicable reasons, allows Jews in Germany to be treated like this." —
Julian Reichelt, Editor-in-Chief of Bild.
"Mass gatherings that degenerate
into violence are incompatible with our understanding of democracy. Humanity,
tolerance, respect and dealing with each other in a democratic way are the
basic values on which our coexistence is oriented. We all want to live in a
peaceful, open and democratic society." — Sören Link, Mayor of Duisburg.
March
1. The Spreewald Elementary School in Berlin's Schöneberg district hiredsecurity guards to
protect teachers and students from unruly students. Around 99% of the pupils at
the school have a migration background. "Within the past year, the
violence has increased so much that we now had to take this measure," said
headmaster Doris Unzeit. "The violence is widespread and we want to take
countermeasures with the security service. This should improve the reputation of
the school and ensure that the children can learn here again in peace."
March
2. A 41-year-old Syrian, Abu Marwan, stabbed to death his 37-year-old wife in Mühlacker.
The couple's three children, a girl and two boys, witnessed the murder. It
later emerged that immediately after the
killing, the blood-stained man posted a video on Facebook warning women not to irritate
their husbands: "This is how you'll end."
March
4. A 30-year-old man who raped at least four women at or near
subway stations in Berlin turned himself in after police published surveillance
photos of him. The man chose his victims while riding on subway trains. He made
eye contact with them, followed them out of the station and subsequently raped
them. Berlin police blacked out information about the man's
nationality. Berliner Zeitung filled in the missing details: he is from
Egypt.
March
4. A group of ten migrants sexually assaulted several women at an outdoor
festival in Lienen. The attack was a case of taharush, a practice
in which groups of Arab males encircle females and assault them.
March
5. Middle Eastern crime families in Berlin are intimidating police by provoking
officers during arrests and filming them with cell phones, according to Welt am Sonntag.
They are also spreading false rumors, accusing police of seeking sexual favors
from prostitutes who are pimped by the very same crime families. "This is
a very observable tactic to discredit the colleagues," said the spokesman for the GdP police
union in Berlin, Benjamin Jendro. "The criminals want to show that the
state is losing control. This has become a popular sport."
March
5. Federal prosecutors in Hamburg charged a 20-year-old Syrian migrant,
Yamen A., with planning to carry out a jihadist attack in Germany. "The
accused is charged with planning an Islamist-motivated attack with explosives
and had already begun with its preparation," prosecutors said. "The
accused wanted to kill at least 200 people with his attack and thus tie in with
the previous attacks attributable to the Islamic State in Europe. It was
important for him to stir up a climate of fear and uncertainty among the
population of the Federal Republic of Germany."
March
6. The trial began of four Eritreans who gang-raped a 56-year-old woman in Dessau. The
men were drinking alcohol at an outdoor plaza when a woman collecting
recyclable bottles and cans ventured into the area. The men offered the woman
their bottles. As she approached them, they hit her on the head with a broken
bottle, pulled her down the concrete steps of a nearby building and for more
than an hour took turns raping her. Prosecutors described scenes of
"unrestrained brutality." The defendants, who were identified by DNA,
were remorseless. One of the accused, 21-year-old Sultan A., said he suffered
from memory loss because he was drunk: "I am
Muslim, I do not tolerate alcohol very well." The trial continues.
March
6. Parliamentarians with the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany
(AfD) traveled to Syria to assess the security
situation there. The AfD has been pushing to declare Syria a safe country and send back half a million Syrian refugees currently living
in Germany. Christian Blex, an AfD state parliamentarian from North
Rhine-Westphalia, tweeted scenes from the Damascus bazaar:
"Pure everyday life. Modern shops. Women with and without headscarves. It
is hard to believe that thousands of Syrian men are now in Germany and that
they also want to bring their families..." He also tweeted images of Syrian women in
Damascus: "Blue jeans instead of a black veil! Women sit in bars. Barely
imaginable in Mecca — also sadly not in Berlin-Neukölln."
March
10. Award-winning author Uwe Tellkamp was let go by his publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag,
after he questioned Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door migration policy. In a
public debate in Dresden, Tellkamp said, "Most migrants in Germany do not
flee from war and persecution, more than 95% of them come here to immigrate to
the social welfare system." Suhrkamp's move triggered an outpouring of
support for Tellkamp and social media users referred to the publisher as
"Stasi Verlag," a reference to the former East German secret police agency which suppressed dissent. Tellkamp
has warned of an imminent "moral
dictatorship" in Germany, where there exists a "mindset corridor
between desired and tolerated opinion." Tellkamp added: "My opinion
is tolerated, it is not desired."
March
11. Incoming Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced a "master plan" to
speed-up deportations of illegal migrants. He said there would be "zero
tolerance for criminal offenders and no-go zones." Seehofer said his goal
is more security and his role model is Bavaria: "Bavaria is one of the
safest regions in Europe, and that must be possible for all of Germany."
March
11. Kurds were suspected of carrying out an arson attack on the Turkish Koca Sinan mosque
in Berlin. The attack was one of several, reflecting an upsurge in violence
between nationalist Turks and militant Kurds on German soil.
March
12. In Flensburg, an 18-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, Ahmad G., stabbed to death his 17-year-old girlfriend,
Mireille B., apparently because she refused to convert to Islam.
March
12. A labor court in Hanover ordered Volkswagen to rehire a 30-year-old
German-Algerian man, Samir B. The carmaker had fired the man in November 2016
because it feared he might carry out a jihadist attack at its main factory in
Wolfsburg. The man had threatened his co-workers — "you all will die"
— and said he wanted to join the Islamic State. In 2014, B. was arrested at
Hanover airport. He was carrying a drone and 10,000 euros in cash and was
heading to Syria. German authorities revoked his passport. The Administrative
Court of Braunschweig later determined that B. "was involved in the
recruitment and support of jihadists from Wolfsburg." The Hanover court
ruled that VW had failed to prove that B. specifically disturbed the company
peace.
March
14. Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, formally elected Angela Merkel to a fourth term as
chancellor. The vote margin was tight: only nine votes. In all, 364 members of
the Bundestag voted for Merkel, while 315 voted against her. There were nine
abstentions, and 21 parliamentarians were either absent or did not cast valid
ballots.
March
14. Around 50 West African migrants went on a rampage after police tried to deport a
Gambian asylum seeker at a migrant shelter in Donauwörth, a town in Bavaria.
Police suspended the operation and called for reinforcements. The migrants
threw bottles and chairs at police and poured hot water on them from above.
Later, more than 150 West Africans gathered to protest at the railway station,
thereby triggering a large-scale police deployment. In all, 32 people were
arrested. "On the one hand, they seek protection and security here with
us, but on the other hand, to organize such riots and disregard our legal
system at the same time is unacceptable," said
Bavarian
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann.
March
15. A 23-year-old Afghan asylum seeker shouting words that sounded like
"Allahu Akbar" rushed toward Chancellor Angela Merkel as
she was leaving the Reichstag building in Berlin. The man was intercepted by
her body guards and admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
March
16. In his first interview since being sworn in on March 14, Interior Minister
Horst Seehofer was asked if Islam belongs to Germany. He responded: "No. Islam does not belong to
Germany. Germany is shaped by Christianity. This tradition includes work-free
Sundays and church holidays and rituals such as Easter, Pentecost and
Christmas." Seehofer's remarks prompted an immediate firestorm of
criticism from the self-appointed guardians of German multiculturalism,
including from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has repeatedly insisted that
"Islam belongs to Germany." German voters, however, appear to agree
with Seehofer. A poll for Focus magazine found that 74% of those surveyed said
that Islam does not belong to Germany. Only 6.4% said that Islam definitely
belongs to Germany.
March
19. Germany's top court rejected a Muslim woman's request to
suspend a ban on driving while wearing a face veil. The woman had argued that
the ban for drivers violated her religious freedom. The court found the woman,
who has worn the niqab for seven years, failed to explain how the law violated
her religious freedom or why she faced harm driving unveiled.
March
21. Chancellor Angela Merkel, in the first major speech of her new term, said that her decision to allow into
the country more than a million migrants was a "humanitarian
exception" that would not be repeated. She said that Germany would do more
to strengthen United Nations aid programs while at the same time pushing for
beefed-up security on the European Union's external borders. She added that
Germany would continue to take in political refugees, but that the government
would also focus on deportations. "People who have no right to protection
will have to leave our country, preferably voluntarily, but if necessary by state
deportations," Merkel said. She repeated her government's pledge in the
coalition agreement that the numbers of migrants per year would be capped at
200,000 or fewer. She added: "It is beyond question that our
country was historically formed by Christianity and Judaism. But it's also the
case that with 4.5 million Muslims living with us, their religion, Islam, has
also become a part of Germany."
March
23. Police in Flensburg classified parts of the city center as a
"danger zone" after violent clashes among youths of different
nationalities. The classification allows police to search anyone in the area
regardless of whether they are suspected of committing a crime. Police blame
the youths for an increase in robberies, assaults and thefts in the area.
March
24. A 17-year-old Syrian migrant stabbed and seriously injured a
24-year-old German woman at a supermarket in Lower Saxony. The woman was
attacked after she intervened in a dispute between her boyfriend and two
migrants, aged 13 and 14. The 17-year-old is the brother of one of the younger
teenagers. She was in an induced coma; doctors removed her spleen and parts of
the pancreas. Police reportedly were considering dropping murder
charges against the 17-year-old and charge him with the lesser crime of
grievous bodily injury. The boy's lawyer said he acted in self-defense.
March
25. Anti-Semitism is running rampant at German primary schools, according to Heinz-Peter Meidinger,
president of the President of the German Teachers' Association (Deutschen
Lehrerverbandes, DL). He also said that videos of beheadings are
commonplace at German schools, and that female pupils are being threatened with
murder. "Unfortunately, these are no longer individual cases, not even
with very young students at elementary schools. Such incidents now exist at
many schools in Germany. One thing is certain: Cruel violent videos in social
networks have long since become a part of student life. In chat forums like
WhatsApp, movies such as ISIS beheading videos are spreading like wildfire."
March
25. The German government bears responsibility for growing Arab anti-Semitism,
which has worsened with the refugee crisis, according to Julian Reichelt,
Editor-in-Chief of Bild: "It is unacceptable that non-Muslim
and above all Jewish children have to be afraid of going to school in this
country because they are being labeled as 'unbelievers' and even threatened
with death. Our government claims it should not be accepted. But while it could
act now, it has failed miserably for months. Since autumn, the humiliating
verdict of the district court of Frankfurt stated that it is 'unreasonable' for
the Arabian airline Kuwait Airways to transport Israelis (meaning in the Arab
world: Jews). Kuwait Airways is allowed to discriminate against Jews at
Frankfurt Airport, and the Federal Government does not object. Let us not fool
ourselves: it is the Federal Government, which, for inexplicable reasons,
allows Jews in Germany to be treated like this. Discriminating against citizens
of the state that emerged from the Holocaust is expressly allowed by a court in
this country and the government does nothing to stop it."
March
26. Northern Germany is experiencing an outbreak of scabies, an infectious skin
disease transmitted by mites. The disease is prevalent in refugee shelters but
experts reportedly are at a loss to explain the cause of the outbreak.
March
26. Lübecker Nachrichten posted a video of a Turkish wedding celebration in which
clan members shut down the Lübeck-Kücknitz Autobahn (highway) and shot firearms
into the air from parked vehicles. The practice has spread to other parts of
Germany (here, here and here).
March
28. A state of emergency was declared in Duisburg after dozens of Lebanese,
Kurdish and Turkish men armed with machetes and iron rods gathered on city
streets to do battle. A cellphone video showed the men, who police said comprise
a "cross-section" of the local population, smashing store windows and
attacking police officers. "A constitutional state cannot accept that
individuals or groups think that they can operate outside of our value system," said Duisburg Mayor Sören Link.
"Mass gatherings that degenerate into violence are incompatible with our
understanding of democracy. Humanity, tolerance, respect and dealing with each
other in a democratic way are the basic values on which our coexistence is
oriented. We all want to live in a peaceful, open and democratic society."
March
28. The Federal Statistics Office reported that in 2016 Germany registered
its highest birthrate since 1973. Migration had a significant impact on the
birth rate: 184,660 children were born to mothers of foreign nationality — an
increase of 25% compared to 2015. The birth rate among German women rose from
1.43 children in 2015 to 1.46 children per woman. The birth rate among non-German
women increased from 1.95 to 2.28 children per woman.
March
30. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the highest representative of the Catholic Church
in Germany, on Good Friday urged Christians to
"reconcile" with Muslims: "Without friendship, without
encounters, without openness for others, there is no understanding, no
reconciliation, no community, but instead the creation of mistrust, fear and
violence."
March
31. A 32-year-old Syrian asylum seeker set fire to a six-story apartment building
in Leipzig. One person was killed and 16 were injured; 34 people lost their
homes. The Syrian was charged with murder, attempted murder and arson. A
30-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker stabbed to death a 44-year-old Eritrean asylum
seeker in downtown Wetzlar.
March
31. Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble said
Islam
is in Germany to stay: "We cannot stop history, everyone has to deal with
the fact that Islam has become part of our country."
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