German Interior Minister: "Islam Does Not Belong to Germany"

German Interior Minister: “Islam Does Not Belong to Germany”

Excerpt:

Germany’s new interior minister, Horst Seehofer, in his first interview since being sworn in on March 14, has said that “Islam does not belong to Germany.” He has also vowed to pursue hardline immigration policies, including the implementation of a “master plan” for speedier deportations.

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.”

The backlash will raise questions about how much Seehofer — a former minister-president of Bavaria and a vocal critic of Merkel’s open-door migration policies — will be able to accomplish during his tenure.

In a March 16 interview with Bild, Germany’s largest daily newspaper, Seehofer was asked if Islam belongs to Germany.

Read the complete original version of this item...

Twitter
Telegram
LinkedIn
Email
Copy
Link copied
Print

Soeren Kern

Soeren Kern is a Spain-based analyst of European politics and transatlantic defense and security-related issues, particularly the rise of Islam in the West. He is a regular commentator about European affairs for newspapers and radio programs on both sides of the Atlantic. Kern, who has worked for think tanks in Madrid, New York City and Washington, D.C., served in the U.S. Air Force (stationed in Germany) during the last decade of the Cold War. He has visited more than one hundred countries, including most of those in Europe and the Middle East. A dual citizen of the United States and Germany, Kern graduated with a degree in diplomacy and international security from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and also studied Middle Eastern history and geopolitics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.