On 17 Apr, 13:22, Eli Grubman <eli.grub...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:32:10 -0700 (PDT), xxa...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> >On 17 Apr, 08:21, "Heinrich" <Heinr...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >>www.spiegel.de. . .
>
> >> In Germany, Islam is often equated with fundamentalism and
fanaticism,
>
> >WHICH IS TRUE AS YOU KNOW BY YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE!
>
> >> perception that imposes a heavy burden on the country's 3 million
Musli=
ms.
> >> Their relationship to Western society is divided between integration
an=
d
> >> sometimes self-imposed exclusion.
>
> >NO INTEGRATION AT ALL "SPIEGEL" IS TO POLITICALY CORECT! THE MUZZIES
> >WISH ONLY THE SHARIA!
>
> YESXXARAG! =A0AND SOON ALL OF THE LANCSHIRE WILL BE UNDER THE SHARIA!
> FUCK YOU!!
SO CLOWN WHEN DO YOU GO TO SUCK MY COCK INSTEAD OF GOATS ONE?
>
> >> The name of the salon is German -- Goldene Finger (Golden Fingers) --
b=
ut
> >> the services it offers are listed in the window in Arabic and
Turkish. =
In
> >> the front of the shop, 40-year-old Palestinian Toufic al-Rifae gives
me=
n
> >> haircuts and trims their beards. Veiled women disappear into a back
sec=
tion
> >> behind a curtain, where female hairdressers do their hair and, using
th=
ick
> >> lines of the traditional Middle Eastern cosmetic preparation known as
k=
ohl,
> >> apply their makeup in the Arab style.
>
> >> Diagonally across the street, Ris A, a restaurant specializing in
grill=
ed
> >> meats, advertises its poultry as "halal," or slaughtered according to
> >> Islamic religious rules. The place is reminiscent of a McDonald's
fast-=
food
> >> restaurant, with its colorful plastic tables and chairs and tiled
floor=
.. In
> >> an open kitchen in the corner, 72 chickens are being roasted over
coals=
on a
> >> large rotating grate. The name of the restaurant, explains the owner,
a=
> >> 35-year-old Lebanese man, "means in Islam: 'What Allah has bestowed
upo=
n
> >> me'."
>
> >> Al Sundus is a shop specializing in "Arab lingerie," Arab water
pipes, =
known
> >> as shishas, are bubbling away in the El Salam caf=E9 and neighborhood
b=
akeries
> >> sell rectangular cakes coated in white cream or decorated with bright
g=
reen
> >> pistachios. One Middle Eastern business after another lines the
norther=
n end
> >> of Sonnenallee, a prominent street in Berlin's Neuk=F6lln
neighborhood.=
>
> >> For some, Sonnenallee is a colorful, quirky shopping street. Others
ref=
er to
> >> it derisively as the Gaza Strip.
>
> >> Most businesses that are not in the hands of Arabs are Turkish-owned:
M=
ehmet
> >> =D6z=E7elik's bakery, which sells sweet baklava; a Turkish Airlines
tra=
vel
> >> agency; the supermarket run by Nazik Balabanoglu and her husband
Ergin;=
the
> >> funeral home owned by Mustafa Mutlu, whose employee Islam Cenaze
Servis=
i
> >> makes arrangements to send the bodies of deceased Muslims to their
nati=
ve
> >> countries or organizes their funerals in an Islamic cemetery next to
th=
e
> >> grand Sehitlik Mosque on Berlin's Columbiadamm Street. The unemployed
T=
urks
> >> killing time at the Taxi Caf=E9 call the neighborhood "Little
Istanbul.=
"
>
> >> Being able to speak German is not a requirement for daily life in
this
> >> immigrant neighborhood, where the street scene is one of bearded men
we=
aring
> >> knit caps and women in headscarves. Not all businesses are Turkish or
> >> Arabic, however. German senior citizens congregate on Tuesdays for
danc=
e
> >> evenings at Zum Ambrosius, one of Berlin's traditional corner pubs,
whi=
ch
> >> seems exotic in this environment. But even this traditional German
> >> establishment was recently purchased by a man of Lebanese descent.
>
> >> Some would call the souk in downtown Berlin picturesque. The
Neuk=F6lln=
> >> Museum, an institution run by the district administration, now offers
g=
uided
> >> tours through the Muslim "kiez" or "hood." Abeer Arif, an Iraqi-born
Ge=
rman
> >> citizen, is in charge of the "Oriental Tour of Discovery."
>
> >> But there is also something oppressive and ghetto-like about this
Middl=
e
> >> Eastern business district in the middle of Germany's most densely
popul=
ated
> >> Muslim neighborhood.
>
> >> The Neuk=F6lln district is home to 300,000 people, and half of them
liv=
e in
> >> the northern part that Sonnenallee runs through. One-third of
Neuk=F6ll=
n's
> >> population are immigrants -- including about 60,000 Muslims, who are
> >> concentrated almost exclusively in the northern section.
>
> >> There are 20 mosques in Neuk=F6lln alone, out of about 80 in all of
Ber=
lin.
> >> Few of these houses of worship are recognizable as such from the
outsid=
e.
> >> Most are reached through gates or rear courtyards, where former
worksho=
ps
> >> and factory buildings have been converted to prayer rooms with
colorful=
> >> patterned carpets laid out on the floor. Sweets, tea and soft drinks
ar=
e
> >> sold in adjacent shops.
>
> >> Neuk=F6lln, like a specimen under a microscope, is proof positive of
so=
mething
> >> that is slowly dawning on the rest of the country: Islam, this
mysterio=
us
> >> religion, both fascinating and alarming, has gained a foothold in
Germa=
ny,
> >> which is now home to more than 3 million Muslims. But the close
proximi=
ty
> >> between long-established Germans and outlandish Muslims is also a
poten=
tial
> >> source of conflict, triggering resentment and fear on both sides.
>
> >> Since the religiously motivated terrorist attacks on New York and
Washi=
ngton
> >> on Sept. 11, 2001, many Germans perceive the faith in Allah
principally=
as a
> >> threat. There are growing fears that jihadists will begin launching
att=
acks
> >> and suicide bombings in Germany, fears fueled in part by repeated
warni=
ngs
> >> coming from German security agencies. Amid such fears, suspicion is
eas=
ily
> >> extended to include the entirety of the Muslim faithful, despite the
fa=
ct
> >> that there are likely no more than a few hundred Muslims promoting
terr=
or in
> >> Germany.
>
> >> These suspicions, in turn, prompt many Muslims to feel excluded and
rej=
ected
> >> by the German majority. Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Sch=E4uble
s=
ees
> >> this as one of the central challenges of integration policy. "Muslims
a=
re
> >> part of society and our common future," Sch=E4uble, a member of the
> >> conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), stressed at a February
> >> conference on the image of Islam in Germany. The difficulty,
Sch=E4uble=
> >> pointed out, lies in the public's growing tendency to equate Islam
with=
> >> fundamentalism and fanaticism.
>
> >> Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hasn't exactly helped the
c=
ause
> >> of integration with his recent rhetoric. Speaking to a cheering crowd
o=
f
> >> close to 20,000 Turks, some of them already naturalized German
citizens=
, at
> >> the Cologne Arena two weeks before the February conference, Erdogan
war=
ned
> >> his fellow Turks against going too far in their efforts to integrate.
"=
No
> >> one can expect you to subject yourselves to assimilation," he said.
"Be=
cause
> >> assimilation is a crime against humanity."
>
> >> No one had asked the Turks to submit to assimilation, the total
removal=
of
> >> cultural and religious identity. But the consequences of a refusal to
b=
e
> >> integrated into majority German society are all too apparent in the
> >> neighborhoods surrounding Sonnenallee in Neuk=F6lln.
>
> >> The area is the epitome of a troubled neighborhood. One in two
resident=
s are
> >> unemployed. The number of robberies and assaults has more than
tripled =
since
> >> 1990.
>
> >> Neuk=F6lln is a good place to experience the "parallel society"
firstha=
nd. It
> >> was the district's mayor, Heinz Buschkowsky, 59, a committed Social
> >> Democrat, who first voiced this taboo term -- and who was promptly
> >> criticized for his supposed violation of political correctness.
Irritat=
ed
> >> Berlin sociology professor Hartmut H=E4ussermann was quick to inform
th=
e local
> >> politician that it would be preferable to refer to the Muslim
immigrant=
s as
> >> an "ethnic colony." "Now would you call that a more pleasant term?"
> >> Buschkowsky asked in response.
>
> >> The term "parallel society" is part of a "semantics of panic" that
> >> generalizes conspicuous exceptions, says Klaus J. Bade, a historian
and=
> >> expert on immigration from Osnabr=FCck in northwestern Germany. At
best=
, says
> >> Bade, German immigration policy, which was "long opposed to
integration=
,"
> >> drives immigrants into enclaves. "A reluctant immigration country
shoul=
dn't
> >> be too surprised to find that its immigrants are sometimes reluctant
> >> themselves."
>
> >> There is some truth to that. For decades, few in Germany grappled
with =
the
> >> issue of the country's new Muslim residents and citizens. "Neither
the
> >> majority society nor the immigrants themselves saw any need to be
inter=
ested
> >> in one another and develop rules of behavior for living together,"
writ=
es
> >> Middle East expert Michael L=FCders in his book "The Long Shadow of
All=
ah."
> >> "Both sides assumed that their interaction would only be temporary."
>
> >> When it began recruiting "guest workers" in the early 1960s, Germany
> >> expected them to remain in the country for a limited period of time
and=
then
> >> return home. Back in Turkey, the "gurbetci," as overseas Turks
willing =
to
> >> return home are called in Turkish, became accustomed to a system in
whi=
ch
> >> other Turks were expected to go to Germany in their place.
>
> >> But the first-generation workers decided to stay in Germany,
establishi=
ng
> >> new families and bringing their Turkish relatives to live with them.
Th=
ere
> >> are about 2.7 million people of Turkish origin living in Germany
today,=
and
> >> about 800,000 of them are German citizens.
>
> >> For years, Germany has also attracted Muslim immigrants from other
> >> countries, especially from Bosnia, Iran, Morocco, Afghanistan, Iraq
and=
> >> Lebanon. It is hard to know exactly how many Muslims now live in
German=
y,
> >> though, because immigration authorities do not ask immigrants to
state =
their
> >> religious affiliation and because Islam lacks a system of registered
> >> membership. For this same reason, Muslim congregations are unable to
sp=
ecify
> >> how many members they have.
>
> >> According to the German Islam Conference (DIK), there are about 3.4
mil=
lion
> >> Muslims in Germany today, making Islam the country's second-largest
rel=
igion
> >> after Christianity and Muslims part of everyday German life.
>
> ...
>
> read more =BB- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
|
