'Muslims Don't Deserve the Same Freedoms'
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By Staff Writers, teleSUR
teleSUR
Monday, May 2, 2016
"Islam is not a part of Germany," according to an increasingly popular far-right party that wants to ban minarets and burqas.
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| Frauke Petry (L), chairwoman of the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) votes during the second day of the AfD congress in Stuttgart, Germany, May 1, 2016. | Photo: Reuters |
Members of the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a party conference on Sunday backed an election manifesto that says Islam is not compatible with the constitution and that Muslims are not entitled to the same religious freedoms as Christians.
The chapter of the AfD manifesto concerning Muslims is entitled, "Islam is not a part of Germany." The manifesto demands a complete ban on minarets—the towers of a mosque from where the call to Muslim prayer is made—and the burqa, the all-encompassing body garment worn by some conservative Muslim women.
In a raucous debate on the second day of the party's annual congress held in Stuttgart, many of the 2,000 members cheered calls from the podium for measures against "Islamic symbols of power" and jeered a plea for dialogue with Germany's Muslims.
"Islam is foreign to us and for that reason it cannot invoke the principle of religious freedom to the same degree as Christianity," said Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, an AfD lawmaker from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, to loud applause.
Germany is home to nearly four million Muslims, or about 5 percent of the total population. Many in the longer established Muslim community in Germany came from Turkey to find work, but those who have arrived over the past year have mostly been fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month the head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims likened the AfD's attitude towards his community to that of Adolf Hitler's Nazis towards the Jews.
Although the AfD has aimed to broaden its political appeal as it seeks to break into the mainstream, at the party conference members hardly debated any domestic issues, such as taxation and social welfare, sticking instead to its far-right focus on the purported threat to white German culture
Opinion polls give AfD support of up to 14 percent among the electorate, presenting a serious challenge to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and other established parties ahead of the 2017 federal election. Merkel has ruled out the possibility any coalition with the AfD.
As teleSUR reported on Saturday, some 400 protesters were detained after clashes erupted between police, supporters of the AFD and left-wing demonstrators.
Hundreds of protesters temporarily blocked access roads to the site of the AFD conference by setting car tires on fire and forming human chains, police spokesperson Lambert Maute said.
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