Free Republic

A young female form lying crumpled on a sidewalk. Blood flowing from multiple stab wounds. Police cars. Ambulances. Flashing lights. Emergency personnel working frantically to save an innocent life that had barely begun. It is a scene that is becoming all too common in Western Europe with its growing Muslim population, as the northern German city of Hamburg experienced in May yet another horrifying honor murder of a young female.

In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice be flourishing in the heart of Europe? The deaths have sparked momentary outrage, but will they change the grim reality for Muslim women? The shots came from nowhere and within minutes the young Turkish mother standing at the Berlin bus stop was dead. A telephone call from a relative...

After a Moroccan thug was stabbed to death in self-defense by a German man he was trying to rob, Muslims in Cologne took to the streets in protest. Apparently, they believe it’s their right to mug Germans, and the Germans should just accept it. And Spiegel Online seems to agree, in an article dripping with sympathy for the demonstrators: ’We’re Sitting on a Powder Keg’: Immigrants Protest Death of Moroccan Teenager in Cologne. Following the violent death of a Moroccan teenager in Cologne, hundreds of immigrants have taken to the streets in nightly demonstrations to protest what they see as...

BERLIN — Six men whirled faster and faster in the center of the nightclub, arms slung over one another’s shoulders, performing a traditional circle dance popular in Turkey and the Middle East. Nothing unusual given the German capital’s large Muslim population. But most of the people filling the dance floor on Saturday at the club SO36 in the Kreuzberg neighborhood were gay, lesbian or bisexual, and of Turkish or Arab background. They were there for the monthly club night known as Gayhane, an all-too-rare opportunity to merge their immigrant cultures and their sexual identities. European Muslims, so often portrayed one-dimensionally...

A new study commissioned by Germany's Interior Ministry warns of a growing threat from the radicalization of Muslims in the country. Six percent of Muslims in Germany support violence in the name of Islam, the authors write. A new study released by Germany's Interior Ministry has added new fuel to the debate about integration of Muslims in Germany, with the report warning about the danger of radicalization of Muslims. According to the study, which was published Tuesday, around 40 percent of Muslims surveyed had a "fundamentalist orientation," which the authors defined as a strongly religious worldview and moral values.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's biggest synagogue, a century-old landmark which was torched by the Nazis and left to fester in communist East Berlin, reopened its doors on Friday in the latest sign of the country's Jewish revival. Located in the German capital's now trendy district of Prenzlauer Berg, the 1,000-seat synagogue has been returned to its former glory thanks to a painstaking 7-year restoration project that cost 7 million euros (4.7 million pounds). The restoration of the blue-domed temple follows last year's opening of a new synagogue in Munich and ordination of Germany's first rabbis since World War Two. But...

Mosque stirs racial passion in Germany While Muslims see a £20m building for Cologne as test of a nation's tolerance, critics fear the rise of a parallel, repressive society Jason Burke in Cologne Sunday July 15, 2007 The Observer (UK) Anti-mosque protest in Cologne. Photograph: Henning Kaiser/AFP/Getty This weekend the mosque is overcrowded, the cafe grubby, the social centre and offices scruffy and uncomfortable. Not for long, hopes Kilic Iqbal, 27, who works for the Turkish religious and cultural association that runs the complex. 'It will be beautiful, but much more too,' said Iqbal. 'The Muslims of Germany have been...

Huge mosque stirs protests in Cologne By Harry de Quetteville in Cologne Last Updated: 12:39am BST 25/06/2007 The construction of one of Europe's biggest mosques near to a globally famous Christian landmark has sparked a furious row in Germany. Immigration and integration are hugely sensitive questions in Germany, which is home to a Turkish community of several million. But almost within the shadow of Cologne Cathedral, political correctness has now been replaced by bitter confrontation as the city's Muslims begin to build a 2,000-capacity mosque with twin minarets that will reach 170ft. "Muslims have been here for 40 years, yet...

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 German Muslims: It's a Protestant Crusade Spiegel Online notes that the discovery of the failed Islamic terror plot to bomb German trains has given rise to the usual pathological denial and anti-logical conspiracy theories among the Muslim community of Hamburg: What Terror? The Protestant Crusade Conspiracy. This just in: The Lebanese men suspected of having deposited bombs on German trains last month were hired hands — in the employ of the German government itself. That, at least, is what one 27-year-old from Saudi Arabia believes. “It’s all a Protestant crusade,� the man explains. “All of northern...

SOEST, Germany – More and more Germans are converting to Islam. Last year approximately 4,000 persons became Muslims. According to the Central Islam-Institute in Soest, the numbers have been rising since the turn of the century. Up to the year 2000 the annual number of conversions stagnated at 300, but it has been rising ever since. The institute’s director, Salim Abdullah, has no plausible explanation for this trend, as he told the evangelical news agency "idea." In the past, converts were chiefly women, who married Muslims, or academics with an "affection for the Orient."

German authorities may have thwarted suicide bomb attacks in Iraq by German women. According to intelligence sources, three women were prevented from travelling to Iraq after one of them had announced she planned to blow herself up in Iraq. SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that German intelligence agencies have prevented three German women from travelling to Iraq in recent weeks. The women, who have close contacts to the Islamist scene in Germany and at least one whom has converted to Islam, came to the attention of intelligence agencies after one of them had announced on an Internet site that she intended...

BERLIN - Germans are growing increasingly negative over Islam and concern is rising over the country's Muslim minority, a recently released poll shows. "If one looks at this from a pessimistic viewpoint it could be seen as the start of a downward spiral toward conflict," said the Allensbach polling agency who conducted the survey for the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper. Asked if they though Christianity and Islamic could co-exist peacefully, 61 per cent of those surveyed said they believed there would always be "major conflicts" between both faiths. Some 91 per cent said they associated Islam with oppression of women, up...

BERLIN: Nearly 17 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, eastern Berlin is about to get its first mosque but the news has provoked an outcry from some residents who say they do not want Muslims in their neighbourhood. The local council has received threats to burn down the mosque, which will stand on a piece of land that belonged to a sauerkraut maker in communist times, said the left-wing mayor of the district of Pankow. The community’s main argument is that here in the neighbourhood of Pankow Heinersdorf there are no Muslims and therefore there is no need...

The cafe Fleck und Speck is as cosmopolitan as Stuttgart gets. During an evening there, I meet a Kurd, a Serbian Jew, and a German whose curly black hair betrays his Mexican heritage. This is the multicultural dream that Germany's Left has promoted for decades - but which not everyone shares. The Christian Democrat-led government of Baden-Wuerttemberg, of which Stuttgart is the capital, has just introduced new "discussion guidelines" which have sparked national controversy. They consist of 30 questions which can be put to applicants for German citizenship to see if they share democratic values. But they have been strongly...

Two German newspapers on Wednesday reproduced controversial drawings depicting the Prophet Muhammad, with one of them arguing that a "right to blasphemy" was anchored in democratic freedoms. The drawings were among several published in a Danish paper in September that sparked outrage and boycotts in Islamic countries. The pictures were also shown in a Norwegian magazine last week. Palestinians in Gaza burned Danish and Norwegian flags this week in protest of the caricatures. The caricatures offended many Muslims both because of their critical content and because Islam forbids representations of Muhammad out of concern they could lead to idolatry. In...

Germans to put Muslims through loyalty test By Kate Connolly in Berlin (Filed: 31/12/2005) Muslims intent on becoming German citizens will have to undergo a rigorous cultural test to gauge their views on subjects ranging from bigamy to homosexuality. Believed to be the first test of its kind in Europe, the southern state of Baden-Württemberg has created the two-hour oral exam to test the loyalty of Muslims towards Germany. It is to be taken on top of the standard test for foreigners wishing to become German citizens, which includes language proficiency skills and general knowledge. It also requires applicants to...

On the night of Feb. 7 2005, Hatun Surucu, 23, was killed on her way to a bus stop in Berlin by several shots to the head and upper body, fired at point-blank range. An investigation showed that months before, she had reported one of her brothers to the police for threatening her. Now three of her five brothers are on trial for murder. According to the prosecutor, the oldest of them, 25, acquired the weapon; the middle brother, 24, lured his sister to the scene of the crime; and the youngest, 18, shot her.[...] Ayhan Surucu, the youngest brother,...

Five cars set ablaze in Berlin Monday, November 7, 2005 Posted: 1103 GMT (1903 HKT) YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Five cars were set on fire overnight in a working-class district of Berlin, and police said Monday they were looking into whether those responsible were inspired by violence in neighboring France. The vehicles were set alight in the inner-city Moabit district, and police said as they investigated the incident that they would step up their presence. No one was injured.

"Five cars in Berlin torched" is bullet headline of well-known financial news provider with a mayor's name. German N-TV showing video of burned-out autos and calls it a copy-cat action. More when I get it.

BERLIN, November 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – German President Horst Koehler on Thursday, November 4, together with bishops of different denominations wished the Muslim minority in the country a happy `Eid Al-Fitr, calling them part and parcel of society. Impressed by the show of Muslim unity on the first day of `Eid, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, Koehler urged the German people to enhance coexistence between one another irrespective of their race and religion. Bishops of the country's different Churches were also keen on offering their traditional congratulations. The Catholic Church said in a statement...

German conservative wants every mosque checked Agencies Berlin: A Germany politician on Friday urged security officials to keep close surveillance of “every mosque” in a bid to root out militant extremists. "I say we must know what's happening in every mosque," said Guenther Beckstein, who is aiming to become the country’s next Interior Minister. An estimated three million Muslims are living and working in Germany. "Let me say clearly this is not a breach of religious freedom, it's a necessity that one knows what kind of Islam is being preached in a mosque," he said. "Where it's liberal and tolerant,...

By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Published September 6, 2005 BERLIN -- Germany's Interior Minister Otto Schily has outlawed two Islamist clubs and a Turkish-language newspaper for advocating radical ideologies. The union Yatim Child Help, and the Islamic Welfare Organization were accused of collecting money for the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported Tuesday. A publishing house was closed for printing the Turkish-language Oezguer Politika newspaper , which has been identified as a member paper of the Kurdish radical party PKK, which was considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. After the...

Dear Muslim Friends! It gives me great joy to be able to be with you and to offer you my heartfelt greetings. I have come here to meet young people from every part of Europe and the world. Young people are the future of humanity and the hope of the nations. My beloved predecessor, Pope John Paul II, once said to the young Muslims assembled in the stadium at Casablanca (Morocco): “The young can build a better future if they first put their faith in God and if they pledge themselves to build this new world in accordance with God’s...

The western German state of Hesse expects to offer instruction in Islamic religion for Muslim students in every school in the state, a state official said Friday. At least one school in every district in the state will offer Islamic instruction in the new school year, and at some point classes will be spread to every school, Culture Minister Karin Wolff said. The teaching will be phased in and a specific time plan will become clearer in the future, she said. Germany has roughly 3.5 million Muslims, mostly of Turkish origin, making them the country's largest single minority group. German...

BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, Germany, (IslamOnline.net) – After years of reluctance, the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg has approved teaching Islamic subjects in its schools as of the school year 2006/07. “The Muslim students in Baden-Wurttemberg will be allowed to study Islamic subjects in German,” Ali Demir, the chairman of the Islamic Council in the state, said in press statements carried by Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper on Tuesday, March 15. Baden-Wurttemberg is the fifth state in Germany’s 16 states to allow teaching Islamic subjects in schools, following in the footsteps of Nordrehin-Westfalen, Berlin, Niedersachsen and Hamburg. Education officials in Baden-Wurttemberg were dragging their feet on...

Wednesday 02 March 2005, 15:41 Makka Time, 12:41 GMT Muslims want to ensure their children grow up with values Six Islamic groups, accounting for 70% of Germany's Muslims, plan to unite under one umbrella to push for having Islam taught in public schools. The groups want to ensure that Islam can be taught in German in public schools to better integrate children and prevent misinterpretations. It is vital to resolve this problem and ensure that Islam is enrolled in school curriculums, said Nadeem Elyas, president of the central council of Muslims, one of the groups. "If we don't, the next...

Following the stir provoked by the assassination in Holland of the film producer Theo Van Gogh, the debate is raging in Germany, according to a report by the Berlin correspondent of Le Figaro of November 23, reported by Apic. According to a representative of the Bundestag, Germany has for years evaded tackling the question of its immigrants. The question today is explosive. On November 18, a firebomb was thrown at a mosque in Baden-Württemberg, without claiming any casualties. Around 25,000 Muslims demonstrated on the following Sunday in Cologne “for peace and against terrorism”. The inhabitants of Muslim origin number around...

Germany to integrate Muslim migrants -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 28, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shop signs in Arabic and Turkish, storefront mosques and headscarf-wearing women in the streets show how easy it is for new arrivals to stay among their own in Berlin's heavily immigrant Neukoelln neighborhood. For years, Germans took places like Neukoelln as a sign of a tolerant, multicultural society. That complacency abruptly ended after the November 2 slaying in the Netherlands of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, an outspoken critic of Islam whose fate raised alarm in next-door Germany - home to more than 3 million Muslims....

Germany agonises over Islam Concern that religious tensions along the lines of those sparked in the Netherlands by the brutal killing of Islam-critical filmmaker Theo van Gogh could spill over into Germany has triggered a fresh debate among Germans about integrating the nation's large foreign population. Leon Mangasarian reports. Muslims comprise 4 percent of Germany's population While Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has stepped-up a campaign calling on the country's big Muslim community to fit with the country's laws and its democratic principles, leading political figures in the nation have claimed that multiculturalism has failed in Germany. This comes in the wake...

This is an excerpt and a translation: More than 20.000 people - predominantly turkish - did protest against islamistic violence in a great demonstration on sunday in cologne.

BERLIN, Nov 19 (AFP) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called on Muslims to better integrate themselves in German society, in extracts of a speech he will deliver on Saturday released early to two major newspapers here. Schroeder warned of a "conflict of cultures" and says Muslims "must clearly and without misunderstanding demonstrate that they accept our legal order and democratic rules."

27.07.2004 The Battle for German Muslim Minds -- Educators worry about what kids are taught in Koran schools ------- Police raids on Islamic schools may shake up fundamentalist cells, but officials agree that the right teachers are the best way to root out radical Islamic leanings among Germany's Muslim youth. Weeks separated news of a police raid on an Islamic school in Frankfurt and the announcement that the University of Münster had set up a department dedicated to educating Islamic teachers. But the two items reveal the two-pronged approach taken in Germany on what is becoming an increasingly important front...

German police raided mosques and Islamic community centers in two southern German states on Friday as part of a widespread effort to track Islamic extremist networks. In Baden-Württemberg, some 400 police officers searched 18 buildings, checking occupants' papers, the state Interior Ministry said in a statement. "The goal is to continue an intensive fight against criminal Islamists and to uncover the networked structures of Islamic extremists and terrorists," the statement said. No arrests were announced. In parallel raids in neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate, some 230 police officers questioned 235 people and searched over 100 vehicles." Five people were arrested on suspicion of...

Frankfurt, Germany--Police raided an Islamic school Monday, seizing computer data while looking for evidence of violent films, including a beheading, that a young girl said were shown to her and other children to incite hatred toward non-Muslims, officials said. Some 120 officers raided the Taqwa Mosque's Islamic school on Sunday after the 9-year-old told her public school teacher she and other children were shown violent videos calling for a "holy war against unbelievers," a Frankfurt prosecutor's spokeswoman said. The mosque director said the items are "harmless recordings of meetings and events."

Muslims Alarmed as Germany Plans Islamist Database Thu Jul 8, 2004 11:25 AM ET By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany said Thursday it would create a central database on suspected radical Islamists, provoking concern from the country's large Muslim community. Interior Minister Otto Schily also announced plans to boost the fight against terrorism by pooling intelligence from the three national security agencies in a new joint analysis center. The moves, announced after two days of talks between Schily and interior ministers from the 16 states or 'Laender', are designed to strengthen Germany's defenses against terrorism by making...

Germany said Thursday it would create a central database on suspected radical Islamists, provoking concern from the country's large Muslim community. Interior Minister Otto Schily also announced plans to boost the fight against terrorism by pooling intelligence from the three national security agencies in a new joint analysis center. The moves, announced after two days of talks between Schily and interior ministers from the 16 states or 'Laender', are designed to strengthen Germany's defenses against terrorism by making its complex security structure work more efficiently. Germany has stepped up its guard against radical Islamists since 2001, when three of the...

June 30, 2004LETTER FROM EUROPELessons of Islam in German ClassroomsBy RICHARD BERNSTEIN ERLIN, June 29 - You could call it Exhibit A. It's a drawing in a text used to teach Islam to Muslim students at German elementary schools, and it shows a family at a table, a father, two children, and a mother, with plates of food in front of everybody - except the mother, who wears a head scarf."The mother is shown like a servant," said Marion Berning, the principal of the Rixdorfer Grundschule, a large elementary school in Neukölln, a largely immigrant neighborhood of Berlin. "This is...

BERLIN – Two years of talks to try to hammer out an agreement on German immigration reform are in danger of collapse with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats battling to keep the reforms alive after the junior member of his coalition, the Greens, pulled out of the cross-party negotiations. While the conservative Christian Democrat–led opposition said Tuesday that they were prepared to press on with the negotiations, the Greens decision to abandon the talks have led to an outbreak of tension within Schroeder's ruling coalition. Interior Minister Otto Schily, who is also a member of the Social Democrats, roundly criticised...

HANOVER, 29 April 2004 — Lower Saxony became the second German state to ban Muslim public school teachers from wearing headscarves after regional deputies voted in a new law to that effect yesterday. The state Parliament dominated by a coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union and the liberal Free Democrats pushed through the vote, with support from the Social Democrat opposition. On April 1, the legislature in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg voted almost unanimously for a similar law, which goes into effect this month. Germany’s highest tribunal, the constitutional court, ruled in September that Baden-Wuerttemberg was wrong to...

Berlin - Violence by Moslem youths against Jews is on the rise in Germany, according to a published report Saturday. A total 35 violent attacks on Jewish individuals were reported in Germany last year, up from 28 in 2002, according to the report in Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. The Berlin paper based its report on preliminary federal statistics on anti-Semitism in Germany. Berlin was the location of more attacks than any other city in Germany, with 12 reported cases of violence against Jews. The report said half of all such cases involved attacks by non-German youths. Turkish nationals account for 20...

German schools are increasingly grappling with cases of Muslim girls pushing for exemption from co-ed swimming and sports on religious grounds, sorely testing the country's ability to integrate its Muslim population. With her flawless German, good grades and ambition to study towards a career, Ayse Yilmaz seems a model of Muslim integration at her Berlin high school. She considers herself part of a growing group of young, educated Muslims who have "a modern understanding of Islam," as the 18-year-old student of Turkish-Kurdish origin puts it. But Yilmaz (Her name has been changed), has angered school authorities by refusing to take...

Among the issues dividing Europe and its Muslim communities, the headscarf, or hijab, is perhaps the most controversial. In Germany, Muslim teachers are fighting for their right to wear headscarves to class. Having spent the last 15 years of her life wearing the Muslim hijab, teaching student Emine Oztürk can’t imagine taking it off in public, even for just one minute. But that’s exactly what Oztürk might have to do if she ever wants to get a job in a Berlin public school. “It’s part of my identity,” said the 25-year-old German of Turkish descent. “How can I lay my...

German state sets headscarf ban Teacher Fereshta Ludin's case prompted states to legislate The southern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has become the first in the country to ban teachers from wearing Islamic headscarves. The state assembly approved the law almost unanimously, but Muslim groups said it eroded religious freedom. The law follows last year's ruling by Germany's highest court that states could ban headscarves if they were deemed to unduly influence pupils. Another five out of 16 states are in the process of passing similar bans. On Wednesday, Berlin's regional government agreed to outlaw all religious symbols for civil servants,...

<p>BERLIN, March 19 (UPI) -- A German Muslim woman watching her son's trial in juvenile court was expelled from a Berlin courtroom after refusing to uncover her head.</p> <p>The expulsion marks the latest chapter in Germany's debate about the place of religious clothing in public life.</p>

BERLIN — The chink and scrape of stonecutters echo through the gray-domed mosque that rises like a glimmer of misplaced architecture in a city where the Muslim call to prayer is a widening whisper. Dusted in marble, workmen scurry in the muted glow of stained glass. Some paint Koranic verses on the walls; others make last-minute alterations to golden-tipped minarets pricking a drizzly skyline. Anxious Berliners sometimes peek into the courtyard, where Ali Gulcek, a husky, nimble man, assures them his religion is not a threat. "I need to enlighten the Germans so their prejudice of Islam will go away,"...

The German Chancellor wants to bar Muslim teachers from wearing headscarves in public schools FRANKFURT - Less than a week after French President Jacques Chirac announced plans to ban religious symbols from public schools, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said that headscarves have 'no place' among public school teachers. Unlike Mr Chirac, however, Mr Schroeder said he could not prevent Muslim school girls from covering their heads in the classroom. Debate over whether to ban Muslim teachers from wearing headscarves has occupied Germany since the nation's highest court ruled in September that teachers were allowed to wear them, unless states...

by Srdja Trifkovic October 29, 2003 According to a recent Agence France Presse report (October 25), Germans are converting to Islam in increasing numbers. They are also “getting younger and younger,” according to Muhammad Herzog who runs a Muslim cultural center in Berlin. He is quoted by the AFP as saying that “many are looking for new lifestyles and some sense of direction.” Herr Herzog converted to Islam as far back as 1979, when he realized that “the Qur’an gathered together everything I had ever believed in.” Islamic Institute archives now contain records of 12,400 people born in Germany to...

BERLIN, Oct 25 (AFP) - To all appearances Herr Herzog is an average German, but on Sunday Mohammed will be one of a growing number of his compatriots to begin the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of their faith. A former Protestant who worked in a social welfare centre for Turkish immigrants for many years, Herzog converted to Islam in 1979 when he realised that "the Koran gathered together everything I had ever believed in." Today he is the director of a Muslim cultural centre in the capital Berlin and he says that the number...

BERLIN - Islamic extremists remain a major security concern in Germany despite a small decline in their overall numbers a report said Tuesday. Radical Islamic movements had 30,600 members based in Germany at the end of 2002 - down from almost 32,000 in the previous year, said Interior Minister Otto Schily who presented the annual report by the Verfassungsschutz, Germany's domestic security agency. Turks form by far the biggest pool of Islamic extremists numbering over 27,000, said the report. Germany's overall Moslem population is about three million out of a total population of 82 million. The number of politically motivated...