Kolat called on the government to act to remove Sarrazin
A leader of Germany’s Turkish community has urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to fire the Bundesbank’s controversial board member Thilo Sarrazin over comments that Muslims are undermining German society.
Chairman of Germany’s Turkish Federation, Kenan Kolat, called for central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin to be removed from his post after fresh comments criticizing Muslims in Germany.
“I am calling upon the government to begin a procedure to remove Thilo Sarrazin from the board of the central bank,” Kolat told the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau on Saturday, August 28.
In his book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (“Germany does away with itself”), Sarrazin claims that members of Germany’s Muslim community pose a danger to German society.
Sarrazin, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Berlin’s former finance chief, was reported in June as saying that members of the Turkish and Arab community were making Germany “more stupid.” With his book, Kolat said, Sarrazin had overstepped a boundary.
“It is the climax of a new intellectual racism and it damages Germany’s reputation abroad,” Kolat said.
High birth-rates
Sarrazin says that his book is addressing cultural division
In a serialization of the forthcoming book in the German popular daily newspaper Bild, Sarrazin said that Germany’s Muslim community had profited from social welfare payments far more than they contributed, and that higher birth-rates among immigrants could lead to the Muslim population overtaking the “indigenous” one in terms of numbers.
Merkel’s chief spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday that many people would find the remarks “offensive” and “defamatory,” adding that the chancellor was concerned.
Members of the SPD have distanced themselves from Sarrazin’s comments, while Germany’s Green and Left parties have called for his removal from the central bank’s board.
A Bundesbank spokesman said that Sarrazin’s latest remarks were personal opinions, unconnected with his role on the board.
Blanket generalizations
Germany's first female Muslim minister said the comments lacked respect
Lower Saxony’s minister of social affairs, Ayguel Oezkan, Germany’s first-ever female Muslim minister, accused Sarrazin of doing damage to the Muslim community with blanket generalizations.
“There are a vast number of hard-working immigrants,” she told the weekly German newspaper Bild am Sonntag ahead of its publication on Sunday. “They deserve respect, not malice.”
“All of those who are involved in society, those who encourage their children, who learn German, who work and pay taxes and those who, as entrepreneurs, provide jobs – all of them deserve respect.”
In June, 65-year-old Sarrazin was reported as saying that Germany was “becoming on average more stupid” because immigrants were poorly educated.
‘Distorted image, half-truths’
Maria Boehmer, the government’s commissioner for integration, accused Sarrazin of giving “a distorted image of integration in Germany” that did not bear up to academic scrutiny.
“In his comments, he states only half truths,” she told Bild am Sonntag. “It is indisputable that, in education, there are currently a lot of immigrants with a lot of catching up to do. It does not take Sarrazin’s comments to establish that.”
In a lengthy interview with weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Sarrazin defended himself against the charge he was encouraging racism.
“I am not a racist,” he told the newspaper. “The book addresses cultural divisions, not ethnic ones.”
Last year, Sarrazin caused a storm by claiming that most of Berlin’s Arab and Turkish immigrants had no useful function “apart from fruit and vegetable trading.” As a result, the central bank stripped Sarrazin of some of his duties.
Author: Richard Connor (Reuters/dpa/AFP)
Editor: Toma Tasovac
Bundesbank official Thilo Sarrazin faced increasing pressure from across the political spectrum due to his controversial views on Muslims and immigrants on Thursday, as calls grew for him to leave the Social Democrats (SPD) and his central bank post.
More politicians joined in the chorus of outrage over Sarrazin’s comments regarding foreigners in a new book he has written and which are widely seen as inflammatory and xenophobic.
In an excerpt from his book published by daily Bild on Thursday, Sarrazin said there were “good grounds” for reservations against Muslims across Europe.
“There is no other religion with such a flowing transition to violence, dictatorship, and terrorism,” he claimed, before making the equally provocative assertion that Muslim immigrants were “associated with taking advantage of social welfare state and criminality.”
Along with members of the Greens and the Left party, politicians from the conservative Christian Democrats are now calling for him to give up his seat on the central bank’s board. Members of his own party said Sarrazin was “abusing” the SPD’s name.
“Those who pour blanket scorn on individual groups are playing a perfidious game with fears and prejudices,” said SPD General Secretary Andrea Nahles on Thursday. “That has nothing in common with the values and convictions of the SPD.”
Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger of the pro-business FDP party called Sarrazin’s theories “confused and unbearable.”
“Germany is a country of immigration and we can be proud of the liberal values and openness of our society,” she said.
The head of the Social Democrats in Berlin, Michael Müller, said it was possible the party would take new steps to kick the 65-year-old former Berlin’s finance senator out of the party. Sarrazin survived a previous attempt this year to revoke his party membership for previous controversial comments.
Sarrazin’s new book, called Deutschland schafft sich ab – Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen, or “Abolishing Germany – How we’re putting our country in jeopardy,” is due to be released on Monday. In the book, Sarrazin warns that Germans could become “strangers in their own country” because of integration. He plans to begin a book tour beginning next week.
The Green party has said it wants to begin a parliamentary procedure in which the Bundesbank and the government recommend Sarrazin be dismissed from his central bank position, a motion which would then be accepted by Germany’s president. The Left party has also called on Bundesbank directors to distance themselves from their controversial colleague.
“A top official who tries to agitate people is unacceptable,” said Left party head Gesine Lötzsch.
This is not the first time Sarrazin has sparked controversy with his views. In September 2009 he made anti-immigrant remarks against Arabs and Turks in an interview with Lettre International magazine.
He claimed that “a great many Arabs and Turks in [Berlin], whose numbers have grown because of the wrong policies, have no productive function other than as fruit and vegetable grocers.”
Though he apologised for those remarks, Sarrazin refused to step down from the Bundesbank’s board despite pressure to do so. He was however symbolically punished when the institution stripped him of some responsibilities after the incident, which caused widespread outrage.
“With Thilo Sarrazin, it’s just a continual offence,” said Green party parliamentary group leader Renate Künast on Thursday.
The chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD) has called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to send a clear signal condemning anti-Muslim comments by Bundesbank official Thilo Sarrazin, according to a Saturday report.
“I ask the German government to initiate proceedings to dismiss Thilo Sarrazin from the Bundesbank board,” Turkish community leader Kenan Kolat told German daily Frankfurter Rundschau on Saturday.
Kolat said the Bundesbank official’s comments, which appear in Sarrazin’s forthcoming book, had crossed the line. “It is the culmination of a new intellectual racism and it hurts Germany’s reputation abroad,” Kolat told the newspaper.
In an excerpt from his book published by daily Bild on Thursday, Sarrazin said there were “good grounds” for reservations against Muslims across Europe.
“There is no other religion with such a flowing transition to violence, dictatorship, and terrorism,” he claimed, before making the equally provocative assertion that Muslim immigrants were “associated with taking advantage of social welfare state and criminality.”
Kolat praised the broader government response to Sarrazin’s statements, including criticisms voiced by the SPD leadership, the Green Party, the Left and integration commissioner Maria Böhmer, as well as Angela Merkel herself.
“I’m very pleased that the German chancellor spoke so clearly of defamation,” he said. Kolat also thanked the Central Council of Jews in Germany for its clear condemnation of Sarrazin’s comments.
Lest the Social Democrats alienate migrant voters, Kolat said he was confident that his party would take further steps to kick Sarrazin out of the SPD. “He’ll go himself, or he’ll be made to leave,” he said. The Bundesbank official survived a previous attempt this year to revoke his party membership for previous controversial comments.
Sarrazin’s book, “Deutschland schafft sich ab – Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen“, or “Abolishing Germany – How we’re putting our country in jeopardy,” is scheduled for publication on Monday. Kolat encouraged a media boycott of the press conference planned to announce the book’s official release.
