Tag: Islamophobia

“[Muslims] eat each other alive, like the dogs that they are…”

Surfing rabbi tells EDL demo ‘We shall prevail’

By Jessica Elgot and Jennifer Lipman

Rabbi Shifren addresses the EDL demonstration (photo: John Rifkin)

Around 300 members of the far right organisation the English Defence League (EDL) were joined by a US Rabbi associated with the Tea Party at a demonstration “to oppose Islamic fascism”.

Speaking outside the Israeli embassy in London, Rabbi Nachum Shifren stressed he was not here to represent the Tea Party but came as someone “who loves freedom”.

Rabbi Shifren, who is standing for the California state senate, said: “To all my Jewish brothers who have called me a Nazi…I say to them they don’t have the guts to stand up here and take care of business.”

The so-called surfing rabbi said the EDL were the only group in England with moral courage and that politicians would not admit that “because of the Arab petrol dollars.”

Rabbi Shifren with EDL members (photo: John Rifkin)

Rabbi Shifren added that Muslims “eat each other alive, like the dogs that they are.”

He said: “We shall prevail, we will not let them take over our countries. We will never surrender to the sword of Islam.”

Shaking his fist in the direction of the Israeli embassy, he shouted slogans in Hebrew, telling the crowd: “You won’t understand what I’m about to say but you will feel my meaning.”

Police surrounded the crowd, who were shouting chants about Allah. A man claiming to be Tommy Robinson, the EDL’s founder and leader, denied that the EDL was a violent organisation.

But he told the JC: “I will protect myself against anyone and I will stand up to anyone and that’s what you’re seeing.

“It will be lads, you will see lads who are not prepared to back down.”

Although the demonstration was ostensibly to show support for Israel, he said he was there to take on militant Islam.

He said: “This isn’t Mickey Mouse, it’s militant Islam. We’re opposing a fascist murdering ideology.”

Mr Robinson, a carpenter from Luton, said that the counter-demonstrators had been “paid to come by this government” and that critics of the EDL “listen to the propaganda.”

Later in the afternoon, the speech of Roberta Moore, leader of the Jewish division of the EDL, was interrupted by an anti-fascist demonstrator who threw water over the public address system.

Hordes of EDL supporters broke ranks to chase the man down Kensington High Street, followed by police. Ms Moore said: “Someone is trying to silence us, so that means our message is sticking.”

After a brief tussle with some anti-fascist demonstrators, several EDL members were searched by police but no arrests were made.

Down the high street around 30 people, from organisations including Unite Against Fascism, Jewdas, and Jews for Justice for Palestinians, as well as two strictly orthodox anti-Zionists, gathered for a counter-demonstration.

Siobhan Schwartzberg, a student from East London and a member of the Socialist Workers Party was one of the organisers. She described the EDL as an Islamophobic and racist organisation and said the demonstration was a marking stone for the group.

“The EDL invited Rabbi Shifren….to use minorities to get at other minorities. We want to say you do not speak for us, you are not a voice for us.”

“This pretence that they are a voice of Jewish people – they want to say that they are an acceptable organisation and they are not.

“They want to be seen to be making clear bigger political ties that don’t exist.”

Yossi Bartal, an Israeli student living in Brighton, added: “It is very important to make clear that there are many Jews and Israelis against the connection they are trying to make.

“The EDL tries to adopt liberal language, but invite Rabbi Shifren, who wants a religious state. It’s funny that this is the one Jew thy have found that will support them.

“They are fascists and not speaking in our name.”

Stephen Shashoua, director of the Three Faiths Forum, said: “The EDL are always trying to divide communities and this as a really low way to do it.

“What we have to seize is Jews, Muslims and others getting together to fight it, either on the streets, in the papers, and across the board, because this is the society we want together, and they don’t represent anything like that.”

, October 25, 2010

Rabbi Shifren’s speech at the EDL demonstration

“From the minute I set foot in this country I’ve had nothing but abuse and I tell you now, I welcome every single bit of it.

To all my Jewish brothers who have called me a Nazi, and have asked why I’m poking my nose into England’s business, I say to them they don’t have the guts to stand up here and take care of business…

“There is only one group in England with moral courage. I wish just one politician had the back bone to stand up and agree, but they’ll never do that because of the Arab petrol dollars…

“In those so-called freedom centres, they plot to destroy and kill us. We’re still waiting for the Muslims to make peace with each other. They eat each other alive, like the dogs that they are…

“I’m looking at this crowd of people here in the UK, and I can see Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and yes, even Jews too. We wanted to say to all those liberals who preach multiculturalism why don’t you go to Saudi Arabia and start there…

“I will not stand by and watch the destruction of both of our countries from within…

History will be recorded that on this day, read by our children for eternity, one group lit the spark to liberate us from the oppressors of our two governments and the leftist, fifth column, quisling press, and that it was the EDL which started the liberation of England from evil…

“Today is the first day of the rest of your lives. We shall prevail, we will not let them take over our countries. We will never surrender to the sword of Islam…“

, October 25, 2010

October 30, 2010
Turkish immigrants fear spread of xenophobia in German society

FULYA ÖZERKAN
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
Thursday, October 14, 2010

A recent survey showing high levels of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment in Germany alarms the country’s Turkish community, which fears such beliefs could flare into violence. The study released this week indicates that xenophobic feelings are spreading from extremists at the margins of society to the middle-class heart of the European country

Recent survey findings that say xenophobic and racist sentiments have penetrated to the middle-class heart of German society have left a bitter taste among members of the country’s Turkish community.

“What is most dangerous is that racism in Germany is going from a Nazi appearance to a ‘black-tie racism,’” Kenan Kolat, a leader of the Turkish community in Germany, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday. “The existing racism is heading toward the center of society, to cultural, white-collar racism.”

Conducted by the University of Leipzig for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, in connection with the Social Democratic Party, the survey released this week, “Right-wing Extremism in Germany 2010,” shows a high number of Germans agree with xenophobic statements. Foreigners as well as Muslims are being treated with suspicion, according to the study’s findings.

“Anti-Semitism is being replaced by Islamophobia,” Bekir Alboğa of the Turkish-Islamic Union, or DİTİB, in Germany told the Daily News. “It is alarming that anti-Islamic sentiments are on the rise despite the German government’s efforts to tackle the integration problem.”

The survey, which was broadcast by Deutsche Welle, shows 32 percent of Germans approve of the statement, “When there’s a shortage of jobs, foreigners should be sent back home”; 34 percent agree or strongly agree with the statement that “Foreigners only come here to exploit Germany’s social welfare system”; and 35 percent think that “Germany has a dangerous level of foreign influence as a result of the many foreigners in the country.”

The presence of such sentiments among Germans is not a new development, Kolat said, but added that the broader willingness to express them is worrying.

“Foreigners are met with suspicion here in Germany, but what’s new is that the middle-class, white-collar-and-tie Germans, who have long refrained from expressing their opinions toward foreigners, are now speaking out,” he said.

Germany has a sizeable Turkish community of around 2.5 million and a total Muslim population of some 4 million. German central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin recently caused outrage among Muslim immigrants when he accused Turks and Arabs of exploiting the welfare state, refusing to integrate and lowering the country’s average intelligence.

“A policy of humiliation and exclusion is supported by part of German society,” Kolat said.

Anti-Islam feelings on the rise

The survey showed the strongest negative opinions when it comes to Islam, with 55 percent of respondents saying they could understand that people find Arabs unpleasant, and 58 percent saying the practicing of the Muslim religion should be “considerably restricted.”

Though members of the Turkish community have said they find the results “intimidating” and “thought-provoking,” others have suggested that the way the questions were asked might have been manipulative rather than neutral, dramatically impacting the eventual results. Still, the community is troubled by fears that the sentiments expressed by middle-class Germans could erupt into tension with immigrants.

“We have serious concerns. Could violence take place? I hope it will not, but it is a possibility we cannot rule out,” Kolat said.

Both Turkey and Germany emphasize the importance of integration for Turks living in the country. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel jointly attended a football match last week between the Turkish and German national teams, with the Turkish leader wearing a scarf combining both nations’ flag in a symbolic move to highlight the importance of integration.

While calling on Turks to adhere to German rules and learn the German language, Ankara cautions against a policy of “assimilation,” saying it would mean destroying a culture. The problem of integration will further be discussed when German President Christian Wulff visits Turkey later this month.

October 17, 2010
Europe the Intolerant

By JAMES KIRCHICK

Prague

‘The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.” So said Tom Wolfe in 1965, and so it is today.

Various commentators have argued recently that opposition by many Americans to a proposed Islamic center two blocks from the ruins of the World Trade Center represents deep-seated religious bigotry and paranoia. But if any place is plagued by increasing bigotry, it’s not America but Europe, the continent whose welfare states and pacifism are so admired by American liberals.

Last year, nearly 60% of Swiss voted to ban the construction of minarets—all minarets, everywhere, not just near the sites of world-historical terrorist attacks committed by Muslim radicals.

In Belgium, the lower house of parliament passed a burqa ban this year that now awaits Senate approval. In France such a ban became the law of the land last week, having been upheld by the country’s top court. Although there are legitimate reasons for such bans, some support for them certainly arises from anti-Muslim bigotry.

In recent years far-right, anti-immigrant parties have done alarmingly well across Europe. In Sweden, the nationalist Sweden Democrats entered parliament last month for the first time since the party’s founding in 1988. In the United Kingdom, the far-right British National Party won nearly three times as many votes (563,000) in this year’s parliamentary elections as in 2005; last year it won two seats in the European Parliament.

In Austria, the Freedom Party—formerly led by Joerg Haider, who had kind things to say of the Nazis—earned 17.5% of the vote in 2008. In France, the National Front party of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who questioned the existence of the Nazi gas chambers before conceding that they were a “detail” of World War II, came in second in the 2002 presidential election, earning a spot in a runoff with then-President Jacques Chirac.

And now the far right may be rising again in Germany, where stringent speech laws and parliamentary thresholds have long kept it out of the Bundestag. Recent polls cited by the German Press Agency estimate support for an anti-Muslim party at 20%, which would be enough to enter parliament.

“The fall of parliamentary seats into extremist hands represents the biggest shake-up in European politics since the disappearance of communism,” wrote Denis MacShane recently in Newsweek. Mr. MacShane is a Labour member of the British Parliament who previously served as minister of state for Europe.

Europeans are leery not just of Muslim immigrants but of Jews, nearly exterminated on the continent 60 years ago. A recent Pew Global Attitudes poll found that nearly 50% of Spaniards have either a “very” or “somewhat unfavorable” opinion of Jews. The figures are 25% for Germans, 20% for French and 10% for British. This anti- Semitism was underscored by the recent assertion of European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht that “it is not easy to have, even with moderate Jews, a rational discussion about what is actually happening in the Middle East.”

So when American liberals decry their conservative counterparts as bigots seeking to impose fascism on the U.S. (having failed to do so during two terms of the Bush administration), they ignore that part of the West where genuine nostalgia for fascism endures.

Anyone who has traveled throughout Europe knows that its image as an exemplar of progressivism, and ethnic and religious diversity, is a fabrication of the American liberal mind.

American liberals who ignore European bigotry while considering opposition to the Ground Zero mosque inexcusable bring to mind the mocking suggestion of German communist playwright Bertolt Brecht: “Would it not be easier in that case for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?”

Throughout the mosque debate, the vast majority of Americans showed themselves to be capable of respectful disagreement. It is Europeans, again, whose darker impulses we have to fear.

Mr. Kirchick is writer at large with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty based in Prague, and a contributing editor of the New Republic.

October 13, 2010
Turkish leader calls on Berlin to sack central bank official over racism

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

https://www.dw.com/en/turkish-leader-calls-on-berlin-to-sack-central-bank-official-over-racism/a-5951829, 28.08.2010

August 28, 2010
Sarrazin under fire for anti-Muslim views

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.

, 26 Aug 10

August 28, 2010
Turkish community demands more government pressure on Sarrazin

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.

, 28 Aug 10

August 28, 2010