By IRNA,
Berlin : Germany’s 4.3 million Muslims are feeling helpless and concerned over rising Islamophobia in their country in the wake of the release of a controversial book which claimed Muslims were undermining German society.
While German political leaders and the nation’s elite expressed outrage over Thilo Sarrazin’s openly Islamophobic book, polls indicate there is widespread support for the central banker’s anti-Muslim stance as only 16 percent of Germans think the Islamic culture can be adapted in German society.
Several studies pointed out that significant percentages of Germans admit to prejudice against Muslims.
The fact that Sarrazin’s book has become a top-seller showed also that the fear of Islam has reached mainstream Germans and not only the fringe far-right crowd.
Burhan Kesici, general secretary of the German Islam Council said Sarrazin’s racist remarks would further deepen Islamophobic feelings in the country.
‘We have so far only heard this sort of thing from the far-right. Never from the political center, and never from the SPD (Social Democratic Party),’ Kesici said, referring to Sarrazin’s membership in the SPD.
In April, a member of the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic (CDU) party triggered public anger over his Islamophobic statements.
Juergen Irmer, a CDU legislator in the state parliament of Hesse, caused a stir among other lawmakers for accusing Islam of seeking world hegemony.
In an interview with the daily Wetzlarer Neuen Zeitung, Irmer said, ‘Islam is fixated on conquering world rule.’
‘We don’t need more but less Muslims,’ added the 58-year-old MP who is notorious for his anti-Islam position.
Merkel’s CDU has in the past instrumentalized anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiments in regional and nationwide elections.
Meanwhile, Kesici said Muslims were already feeling a higher degree of racism
and Islamophobia in German society.
Kesici’s remarks were underlined by Pinar Cetin of the Turkish Muslim organization DITIB who stressed there was a ‘latent Islamophobia’ in Germany which was ‘boosted because of people like Sarrazin.’
She urged the German government to admit there was Islamophobia in the country.
The Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims, Ayyub Axel Koehler emphasized that Islamophobia had turned into a ‘major challenge’ for Germany.
The issue of Islamophobia has to be placed on the ‘political agenda of parties, parliament and government,’ the Muslim leader said earlier.
‘Islamophobia in Germany now has a name: Thilo Sarrazin. He has caused serious and lasting damage to the reputation of our country with his racist and contemptuous comments,’ Koehler added.
The press also highlighted the problem of Islamophobia in Germany with the Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der Spiegel frankly acknowledging the country was ‘becoming Islamophobic.’
Referring to the scandal over Sarrazin’s anti-Muslim book, Der Spiegel said, ‘Thilo Sarrazin’s comments about Muslims have triggered outrage in Germany and abroad, but have met with willing listeners among the general public.’
‘His rhetoric is slowly bringing about change in Germany, transforming it from a tolerant society into one dominated by fear and Islamophobia. Germany is changing. And although it is not yet a consistently Islamophobic society, a Sarrazin republic, it is certainly on its way to becoming one,’ it went on to say.
German Muslims have repeatedly voiced growing concern over the Islamophobic wave fuelled by mostly right-wing German politicians.
‘The mood in the German Muslim community is filled with fear because Islamophobia has reached the middle of German society,’ according to a Berlin-based Muslim community leader, Faical Salhi.
‘I am afraid for the safety of my wife and children. There are daily attacks against Muslims in Germany simply because one has a beard or is wearing a headscarf,’ Salhi added.