| German President Christian Wulff was to arrive in Turkey later on Monday for a five-day visit that comes amid a heated debate in Germany on the integration of Muslim immigrants, an overwhelming majority of whom are Turks. | |
 In a sign that religious freedoms will also be high on the agenda, Wulff will visit religious sites in İstanbul and in the southern Turkish town of Tarsus and have talks with the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate, Ali Bardakoğlu, in Ankara and the Greek Orthodox patriarch, Bartholomew, in İstanbul.Another highlight of the visit is an address by the German president to the Turkish Parliament, which is scheduled for today. The integration of 2.5 million Turks into German society is likely to be a key issue in Wulff’s address. Wulff, the first German president to visit Turkey in 10 years, has won praise from Turkish and other Muslim immigrants when he said earlier this month that Islam was a “part of Germany.” But these remarks have also set off a row in Germany, prompting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to say that German culture is based on “Christian and Jewish values.” Wulff, who was recently depicted as a Muslim imam on the cover of a German journal because of his comments on Islam, faces the most difficult visit of his young presidency, according to some in the German media.The debate on the integration of Muslims into German society intensified when Merkel said during a weekend meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) that Germany’s attempts to create a multicultural society have “utterly failed.” The chancellor, who is under pressure from other conservative politicians to toughen the stance on immigration, said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her usual line that they should learn German in order to get by in school and have opportunities in the labor market.
Official German data show about one in five Turks living in Germany speak either poor German or no German at all and that language difficulties were the main obstacle to the successful integration of Turkish immigrants. Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have recently called on Turks to advance their German skills and to speak German “without an accent.” The debate over Germany’s immigrant community has intensified since former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin published a book accusing Turkish and Arab immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society. A survey that was published last week showed that more than one-third of Germans say immigrants, some of whom had been living in the country for more than 40 years, should be sent to their native lands when jobs are scarce. Some 58 percent backed limitations on the religious practices of Muslims, while 10 percent said a “führer” is needed to run the country “with a strong hand.” Wulff will visit Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s mausoleum and then proceed to talks with Gül today. He will also have talks with Prime Minister Erdoğan and head of the Religious Affairs Directorate Bardakoğlu before addressing Parliament in the afternoon. On Wednesday, he will travel to the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, where Gül is from, to attend a business forum, following which he will fly to the southern province of Adana. On Thursday, he will visit the St. Paul Museum in Tarsus, a former church, and attend a religious ceremony there. On Friday, the German president will have talks with Patriarch Bartholomew and then visit Sultanahmet Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. He and Gül are then expected to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a Turkish-German university in İstanbul. Todays Zaman |
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