(Reuters) Plans by European countries to take some 400 unaccompanied children from the burned-down Moria refugee camp in Greece should mark just the beginning of their efforts, German Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday. Fires destroyed Greece’s biggest refugee camp on […]
(Deutsche Welle) Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) have finally managed to expel controversial politician turned author Thilo Sarrazin, who has published a series of books over the last decade bearing little resemblance to the party’s stated positions. Sarrazin’s books criticizing the lack of […]
(Jerusalem Post) The domestic intelligence agency for the city-state of Hamburg announced on Friday that there are 50 Hezbollah members in Hamburg and roughly 30 Hezbollah-affiliated associations spread across Germany. Germany authorities banned activities connected to Hezbollah in April and declared the […]
(Reuters) Social Democrat state [premiers] on Saturday called for Germany to take in vulnerable refugees from crowded reception camps in Greece, in the latest sign of discord in the ruling coalition over the prospect of a new refugee wave hitting Europe. Tens […]
(Deutsche Welle) Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced on Saturday the creation of an “independent expert group on Islamophobia” (Muslimfeindlichkeit), saying it would emulate current ministerial panels on anti-Semitism and antiziganism, meaning hostility toward Jewish and Roma communities respectively. His call follows a charge […]
(Deutsche Welle) There are very few women and girls in Germany wearing a full-face veil such as the niqab or the burqa — most likely a mere two-digit number. A recent verdict handed down by a Hamburg court, however, has sparked a […]
(Jerusalem Post) Ali Ertan Toprak, the chairman of the Kurdish community in Germany, on Tuesday lodged a formal criminal complaint against the Iranian regime-controlled Islamic Center of Hamburg, the owner of the Imam Ali Mosque, for its support of terrorism. According to […]
(AP) Germany’s parliament passed a resolution Thursday calling for a national ban on the activities of Hezbollah and for the Lebanese militant group to be put on the European Union’s terrorist list. Mathias Middelberg, the spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in […]
(Deutsche Welle) Thilo Sarrazin, who has been accused by Islamic organizations of racism and damaging Germany’s reputation, will no longer appear at a private business club in the northwestern city of Bremen next month. The Weser-Kurier newspaper cited organizers as saying the […]
(AFP) Germany’s far-right AfD party surged in elections in two ex-communist eastern states Sunday, reflecting anger over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migrant policy and a wealth gap 30 years after the Berlin Wall fell. The Alternative for Germany became the second-strongest party in […]
(AFP) Germany is bracing for what could be the first outright election victories for the far-right AfD party on Sunday, when voters in two states in the ex-communist east go to the polls. Even strong vote results, coming 30 years after the […]
(Deutsche Welle) Plans to no longer serve children pork or gelatin-containing products like gummy bears at two daycare centers in the eastern German city of Leipzig prompted a wave of criticism online and made headlines across the country on Tuesday. The mass-circulation […]
(Deutsche Welle) On its third try, Germany’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) will be able to kick controversial anti-Islam author Thilo Sarrazin from its ranks, an arbitration court ruled on Thursday. The former Berlin senator intends to appeal the ruling. “We will try […]
(AP) In Scandinavia, there’s a new type of socially conscious liberal — that wants tighter restrictions on immigration. Left-wing parties in Denmark and Sweden that historically defended humanitarian values and generous welfare systems have shifted positions since Europe saw an influx of […]
(VOA) The election victory last week by Denmark’s Social Democrats has prompted a debate among fellow European left-wing parties: Should they, too, adopt anti-migrant rhetoric, imitate their Danish counterparts and campaign for stricter immigration rules? Because of a surge in support in […]
(Deutsche Welle) The parliamentary group leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has sparked a divisive debate after he said a Muslim could be a future CDU leader and chancellor of Germany. Asked by media outlet Idea if a Muslim could lead […]
(Deutsche Welle) Germany’s governing coalition has agreed to strip fighters of the “Islamic State” (IS) militant group of their citizenship, according to German outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR. The new law would apply only to jihadis who are of age, have a second […]
(Daily Sabah) The German government wants to make German language skills a requirement for foreign clerics seeking to enter the country, an Interior Ministry spokesman told dpa on Sunday. Clerics looking after the large number of Muslim migrants who have entered Germany […]
(Anadolu) A Turkish-Belgian politician on Friday decried the difficulties of living as a Muslim in Europe. Being a Muslim in Europe is hard in terms of both religious belief and wearing a headscarf, Mahinur Ozdemir, 36, a Belgian-born Muslim parliamentarian, told a […]
(Reuters) The new leader of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, unveiled plans for a tightening of immigration rules, part of a move to distance the party under her leadership from her mentor and predecessor, Chancellor Angela Merkel. Some of the proposals, […]
(Deutsche Welle) Nariman Reinke, a naval petty officer, is one of about 1,500 Muslim soldiers who serve in the Bundeswehr. Born to [Moroccan] parents in 1979, Reinke has been in the military since 2005 and has twice deployed to Afghanistan. But being a Muslim […]
(Deutsche Welle) He’s a longstanding Social Democrat and former board member of Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, but nowadays Thilo Sarrazin is better known as Germany’s bestselling author of a pair of books fiercely criticizing Muslim migration into Germany. The first, “Germany […]
(Reuters) The new leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats (CDU) outlined plans on Sunday to change the party’s migrant policies before next year’s European election, signaling that she could break with her mentor Angela Merkel’s liberal approach. The conservative party elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer […]
(Jerusalem Post) The think tank for the German Social Democratic Party withdrew its Human Rights Award to the Women’s March USA in Washington, DC, on Thursday because doctoral students associated with the foundation accused the organizers of the march of hardcore antisemitism […]
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