Christian Wulff

President Wulff urges Turks to 'actively integrate' in Germany | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 19.10.2010:

"In his speech, Wulff stressed immigrants need not give up their cultural identity or background. But those living in Germany should respect and protect the values of the German constitution, including freedom of speech, equality and the right to a religiously and ideologically neutral state.

'Those who wish to live in Germany must follow these rules and accept our way of life,' he said.

Wulff also touched on the subject of religion, calling on Turkey and other Islamic countries to be more open to Christianity. 'We expect Christians in Muslim countries to have the same right to live their faith publicly, to educate their youth in theology and build churches [as Muslims do in Germany],' he said.

'Without a doubt, Christianity belongs to Turkey,' he said, recalling his Unity Day speech from earlier in October, in which he stated that Islam had become part of Germany."

Has he actually considered what Minister Faruk Çelik said only two days ago?

Background:
Germany: 69% against Turkish entry in the EU, poll shows.
CDU politician calls to stop Muslim immigration.
"Muslims should obey Constitution, not Sharia", Merkel says.
Conservative leaders reject Wullf's remarks on Islam.
Germany agrees in making easier for Turks to get visas.
President Wulff will visit Turkey on Monday, while Merkel criticizes multiculturalism.

Germany indicts eight Islamists for supporting terrorism abroad - Monsters and Critics

Federal prosecutors in Germany said on Tuesday that they have indicted eight people for supporting foreign terrorism and being members of a criminal organisations.

The eight - seven men and one woman aged between 17 and 30 - are accused of supporting al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam, through their membership of the German chapter of the so-called Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF).

All but the 17-year-old, who is Turkish, are German citizens.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the suspects, all of whom remain at large in Germany, a spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor's Office said.

A statement released by the office said that the GIMF was a 'militant Islamist organisation that had the goal of supporting the global jihad through the internet.'

Background:
Germany: arrested man confesses in court to terrorism charges.
Afghanistan: 8 German killed while receiving terrorist training.
Kenya: German linked to terrorism alarms authorities.
Germany: Islamists aim to infiltrate Hamburg mosques

Germany announced on Thursday it would fund Islamic studies at three state universities to train prayer leaders and religion teachers more in tune with Western society than the foreign imams preaching at most mosques here.

Two universities, Tuebingen and Muenster, are famous for their faculties of Christian theology and count German-born Pope Benedict among their former professors. The third, Osnabrueck, opened a course for imams this week with 30 students.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, several European countries have been seeking ways to educate imams at their universities rather than importing them from Islamic countries out of step with modern and multicultural societies.

Germany, whose state schools have separate religion classes for their Catholic, Protestant and Jewish pupils, also needs qualified Islam teachers for Muslims. Some states already offer Islam classes in their schools and more plan to do so.

“We want as many imams as possible to be educated in Germany,” said Education Minister Annette Schavan. “Imams are bridge builders between their congregations and the communities in which their mosques stand.” 

Source.

Background:
Germany: University of Tuebingen will open department of Islamic studies.

Radical Islamists from a shut down Hamburg mosque linked to the September 11 attacks on the United States are now trying to infiltrate other mosques in and around the German city, according to officials and Muslim leaders. 

Small groups of radicals have turned up at several mosques trying to establish a new meeting place since the Taiba Mosque, where the 9/11 leader Mohammad Atta once prayed, was raided and closed by police in August, they told Reuters.

With radicals no longer grouped around one mosque near the city's main train station, security services have stepped up their observation of Islamists around the city and Muslim associations are on the lookout for suspicious newcomers.

"There are small groups of 3 to 5 people from the former Taiba Mosque who have gone to other mosques," said Ralf Kunz, internal affairs spokesman for the city government.

Individual radicals have turned up "at lots of mosques, both in Hamburg and the surrounding region," he said. "They have not been able to assemble at any mosque."

Hamburg police shut down the Taiba Mosque, formerly known as the Al Quds Mosque, in August, saying it had links with armed Islamist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A so-called "Hamburg Travel Group" of 11 radicals linked to the mosque left Germany in March 2009 to fight against the U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Source. 

Sharia Law Being Used in Germany in Muslim Domestic Disputes | Newsnet 14:
Background:
"Muslims should obey Law, not Sharia", Merkel says.

 

More than two-thirds of the Germany citizens are against Turkey's EU entry, according to a poll, whose results emerged as Turkish PM Erdogan met Chancellor Merkel in Berlin.

69% of the Germans do not want to see Turkey in the EU, according to a survey of Emnid Institute while only 27% back this idea, reported Die Welt.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived Friday in Germany where together with Angela Merkel he watch the Germany vs. Turkey qualification match for Euro 2012 in Berlin, in the which the Germans won 3:0.

Erdogan and Merkel have held political talks on Saturday during which both called for the integration of the large Turkish community living in Germany.

"It's about participation in our society based on the foundations of our society. Assimilation is not at all on the agenda," Merkel said after meeting the Turkish PM.

Erdogan welcomed the statements by President Christian Wulff that Islam is now part of Germany as well as Christianity and Judaism.

"The EU must keep its promises. There can be no slowdown," Erdogan stated while asking Germany to advocate for the furthering of Turkey's EU accession negotiations.

Merkel in turn said the outcome of the accession talks was open but pointed out that at present they are stalled by the EU's insistance that Turkey open its ports and airports to ships and planes from Cyprus.

Source.

If Erdogan welcomes something, then we can safely say it isn't right...

Background:
CDU politician calls to stop Muslim immigration.
"Muslims should obey Constitution, not Sharia", Merkel says.
Conservative leaders reject Wullf's remarks on Islam.
Germany agrees in making easier for Turks to get visas.

YNet News:

A German official on Saturday called to stop Muslim immigration into the country, stirring public controversy.

Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Democratic Union Party (CSU), which is a member of the coalition government in Germany, said in an interview to Focus magazine, "It is obvious that immigrants from Turkey and Arab countries face more difficulty integrating into German society than other immigrants."

"In any case," Seehofer added," the conclusion is that we don’t need additional immigrants from 'foreign cultures'." 

...During the interview, Seehofer also argued that unemployment benefits should be revoked from immigrants who do not seek employment, arguing that immigrants should be forced to share the basic values of Germany, and have command of the language. 

According to the conservative politician, tolerance and openness to other religions, as cemented in the German constitution, do not grant these religions direct influence over the country's core values.
Seehofer's remarks angered politicians from across Germany's political spectrum, leading some politicians to dub him a "radical-rightist populist."

I don't see how this could be made. In most Islamic countries, people cannot change their religion from their own national identity papers. So, if someone is indeed like a Kuwaiti who converted to Christianism, but he is indeed considered as a Muslim in his country, what would they do?

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday 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.

..."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.

"What applies here is the constitution, not sharia."

Merkel said Germany needed imams "educated in Germany and who have their social roots here" and concluded: "Our culture is based on Christian and Jewish values and has been for hundreds of years, not to say thousands."

Source.



Background:
Germany: conservative leaders reject President Wulff's remarks about Islam.

Peter Frankenberg

DW:

The state government of Baden-Wuerttemburg on Tuesday announced plans to create Germany's first university department of Islamic studies at the University of Tuebingen by next year.

State premier Stefan Mappus and Minister for Science, Research and Art Peter Frankenberg presented the plan in the southwestern city of Stuttgart, saying it would provide Islam with a legitimized and recognized place in Germany's system of higher education.

Stefan Mappus

The state's education ministry plans to staff six full-time professors in the department who have preferably completed at least part of their academic careers in Germany. Starting in the winter semester of 2011-2012, it plans on training up to 320 imams to work at mosques, in education and social work.

The Islamic studies department would be the first of its kind in Germany, where most imams were born and educated in Turkey, speak little German and are unfamiliar with western European culture. Most of those trained in Germany attend the University of Muenster, which has a Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

Meanwhile, a Muslim group has lauded Mr. Wulff for his stance. They said that he had made clear that Muslims weren't second-class citizens.

Meanwhile, German magazine Bild.de reports (DE) that angry citizens have written him to critizise the speech, rejecting it, and that a poll has shown that 66% of Germans don't agree with those words.

AOL News:

A U.S. missile killed five German militants taking shelter in a house in northwest Pakistan on Monday, intelligence officials said.

The attack hit a house in North Waziristan. That region has been named as the source of a European terror plot that has prompted American authorities to issue a travel advisory. One or more German citizens are reported to be linked to the plot.

The missile strike took place in the town of Mir Ali, a known hub for foreign militants with links to al-Qaida.

Two officers said the five victims were believed to be German citizens in the region for terrorist training.

A man who was allegedly a member of a group that plotted to attack U.S. targets in Germany has confessed in court to several of the charges against him. 

German news agency DAPD reported Friday that the man, identified only as Salih S., confessed he had trained in a terrorist camp in Pakistan. 

Salih S., who is on trial at a state court in Frankfurt, also confessed to procuring GPS devices, night vision goggles and other items for Adem Yilmaz. Yilmaz was convicted with three others earlier this year of plotting an attack in 2007 that a judge said could have killed large numbers of U.S. soldiers and civilians had it not been thwarted. 

Salih S. was arrested in 2008 in Turkey and extradited to Germany in July.

Liberals and Christian Democrats in the Netherlands say they will ban the Muslim burqa-style veil as part of a pact to form a minority coalition government backed by the anti-Islam Freedom Party.

The pact presented by the parties' leaders Thursday also proposes to cut about $25 billion from the Dutch budget.

The incoming coalition government will be dependent on support of the Freedom Party lawmakers to give it a majority in the 150-seat chamber.

Christian Democrats are waiting the outcome of their October 2 convention vote before they make a final decision to approve the coalition proposal.

The Netherlands' new "Freedom and responsibility" coalition formally includes just the Liberal Party (VVD) and the the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). But the 46-page-long coalition agreement by the minority government makes far-reaching concessions on burqas and immigration rules in order to be able to count on parliamentary support from Mr Wilders' PVV faction. 

Under the plans, immigrants already living in the Netherlands will face extra hurdles in bringing family members to the country and unskilled people will have even fewer chances of finding work and coming to settle. The coalition text also promises in writing to bring a burqa bill to parliament.

Speaking at a joint press conference with the VVD and CDA leaders on Thursday (30 September), Mr Wilders said "A new wind will blow in the Netherlands" and "We want the Islamisation to be stopped."

He also took a swipe at German Chancellor Angela Merkel who had earlier voiced "regret" at his potential role in The Hague. Speaking in broken German during the press conference, he said "Ms Merkel, you are not right," and told her to stop meddling in Dutch politics.

This is an update on this story:

It's interesting that the terrorists are still going to "pray" to the same mosque where Sept 11 was planned.

According to German magazine Stern.de, German Government has agreed with the Turkish business association to make it easier for Turks to obtain visas to enter Germany. According to the Turkish Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges (TOBB)'s website, the agreement was achieved after the Association's chairperson, Mr. Rifat Hisarciklioglu, had a conversation on the phone with German FM State Secretary Wolf-Ruthart Born. The latter agreed to facilitate visas for Turkish businessmen.

CNN:

A German citizen of Afghan descent was the source of much of the information on a potential "Mumbai-style" terror plot in Europe, a German counterterrorism official said Wednesday.

The man, Ahmed Sidiqi, was detained in Kabul in July and transferred to U.S. custody where he has "revealed details about the terror plot," said the official, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

The headscarf is more than just a piece of fabric, more than just another article of clothing, and definitely not some hip lifestyle accessory that heavily made-up girls should use to add a little color to their wardrobe. No, the head scarf is a "flag and symbol of Islamists" which "followed a crusade all the way to the heart of Europe by the 1980s." Or so says iconic German feminist Alice Schwarzer in her new book, "The Great Cover Up: For Integration, against Islamism".

The book was recently published in German under the name "Die grosse Verschleierung: Fuer Integration, gegen Islamismus," and its strong statements been an injection of yet more fuel into the already burning integration debate in Germany.

Teachers are no longer allowed to wear the head scarf in German public schools, and now Schwarzer has demanded the next step: Girls should be forbidden to wear it as well.

"Only this forceful act would finally give the young woman from a fundamentalist orthodox family the chance to move with freedom and equality, at least within the confines of the schoolyard," Schwarzer writes.

Many readers are likely to react negatively to this demand for a headscarf ban. In themselves, bans clash with freedoms and rights that are supposed to be self-evident in Germany: the right to individual self-determination, the freedom of religion.