Merkel: Good relations of Germany and Muslims
Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the quality of the relationship of Germany and its Muslims, a poll released Thursday shows that more than half of Germans considered Islam a threat.
Non-Muslims have "very good relations with the majority of Muslims in Germany," Merkel said in response to a query at a press conference, after the attack on the French weekly Charlie Hebdo, where on Wednesday killed 12 people.
"Everyone here [Muslims] clearly provide for a terrorist attack," she said, expressing regret that the "some in Germany, unfortunately, joined jihadists", Hina reports.
Set against extremism
Muslim organizations on Thursday announced that Germany would like to organize rally against extremism.
"We must be united in defense of our values of freedom," said the magazine Der Spiegel Bekir Alboga from the Islamic-Turkish Association of Religious Affairs.
A study by the weekly newspaper Die Zeit published on its web site, and Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation conducted in November, ie long before the attack on Charlie Hebdo, points out that 57 percent of respondents believe Islam is a threat and that 40 percent of them considered "strangers in their own country ".
Immigration of Muslims in Germany, a country with around 81 million inhabitants, of which about four million Muslims, mainly from Turkey or the Turkish roots, 24 percent of respondents want to ban.
It seems that this hostility to Islam, says Foundation, fairly widespread and that includes conservative circles, as well as the left, through the middle layer, as shown by the protests that from October in Dresden organized movement PEGIDA, who opposes Islam, which embraces neo-Nazis, supporters of the far-right, but also ordinary citizens.
Comparison of Islamophobia, anti-Semitism
This Islamophobia is comparable to anti-Semitism which was rampant in the 19th century, pointed Bertelsmann, who recalls that in 2012 52 percent of Germans believed that Islam is incompatible with Western values (in the latest survey, such as 61 percent).
Media expert Kai Hafez, who participated in the preparation of the study, stresses the responsibility of the media who give too negative image of Islam: Islam many heard only when it comes to "organized by the Islamic State [of Iraq and the Levant], the violence and the Salafists", the oppression of women or rejection of democratic values, said Hafez, a professor at the University of Erfurt.
The survey was conducted in November on a sample of 937 non-Muslims.
- 9 Jan, 2015
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