When former Berlin politician Thilo Sarrazin made critical remarks about Muslim immigrants four years ago, many found them offensive, though prosecutors rejected complaints, citing free speech laws. A UN committee disagrees, however, and has accused Germany of violating an anti-racism convention.
Thilo Sarrazin is a controversial figure in Germany because of his opinions about Muslims.
A United Nations committee has reprimanded Germany in strong language, saying that the country had violated an international anti-racism convention.
At issue are controversial statements made in 2009 by Thilo Sarrazin, a former finance senator for the city-state of Berlin, about Turks and Arabs, who he said sponged off the state and were incapable of integrating, among other things. But a complaint submitted to public prosecutors in Berlin was rejected on grounds that the comments were permissible under Germany’s freedom of expression law. An appeal to the decision was rejected as well.
According to the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), however, this constituted a violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, because it failed to conduct an “effective investigation” into the matter.
“This is a historic decision,” said the TBB Turkish Union, the cultural organization that submitted the case to the committee, in a statment on Thursday. “CERD has determined that Mr. Sarrazin’s comments touch on a feeling of racist superiority or racial hatred and contain elements of incitement to racial discrimination.”
Ultimatum
CERD also issued an ultimatum to Germany, giving the country 90 days to inform the committee of the measures it will take to address the committee’s opinion. It also recommended that the country “review its policies and procedures in cases of alleged racial discrimination” and widely distribute this information to prosecutors and judicial bodies.
“The opinion paper from the committee is at the Justice Ministry and will be reviewed,” the government told the Der Tagesspiegel newspaper, which broke the story on Thursday.
The offending statements were made in an interview with the culture and political magazine Lettre International in September 2009, in which Sarrazin, also a former board member at Germany’s central bank, disparaged Muslim immigrants, alleging that they “constantly produce little girls in headscarves” and were part of an “underclass that does not take part in the normal economic cycle.” He also said that “a large number of Arabs and Turks in (Berlin) … have no productive function other than in the fruit and vegetable trade.”
The UN committee concluded that such statements “contain ideas of racial superiority, denying respect as human beings and depicting generalized negative characteristics of the Turkish population, as well as incitement to racial discrimination.”
In 2010, Sarrazin repeated his sentiments in his controversial, best-selling book “Germany Does Itself In,” which sparked a major debate about Muslims in the country.
The TBB filed its complaint with CERD in July 2010, and the committee reached its decision on Feb. 26, publishing it on April 4.
Courtesy Spiegel International
Joseph Stalin / April 19, 2013
I don’t see anything wrong with speaking the truth
Many Muslim immigrants in the west struggle to respect the native culture and get along with them. Instead of integration they want to turn things around to suite their will, from Sharia courts to ban on non Hala stuff in Muslim neighbour hoods.
UN has become a smoke screen for such rascals, long live “political correctness”.
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Sama / April 19, 2013
This is the truth. Those muslims are only focused on the social benefits rather than respecting other values in western cultures. This has been the case with many turks living in Germany and for their getto life style every corner of the country. I have met turkish and other muslims continuously living in Germany but being engaged in illegal busniesses with their native countries, while continuing to live on the social benefits provided by the state. So these have caused them to be isolated by the indeginous among the many other core factors.
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DODU / April 19, 2013
Do not talk rubbish. You people go there and selling KASIPPU is respecting values ?
The Chief priest of London Thames Vihara abused a 9 year old girl in the temple ( refer August 31, 2012) and was sent to prison for 7 years by a London Court ( he was running two orphanages- one in London and the other in Sri Lanka) is also respecting values?
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DODU / April 19, 2013
(Refer CT August 31, 2012)
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Goraka / April 19, 2013
When British colonized (in modern jargon – invaded) Sri Lanka, they did not wear amudea. They made Sri Lankan wear trousers, suits, and tie (in a hot country) and made us speak in English. It is OK because they are white. So, what’s wrong with Turks doing the same thing?
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Marwan / April 19, 2013
Speaking the truth and making racist comments in public are two very different things. If the country laws permitted these Muslim immigrants to settle down as citizens, then they should not be critical of their living off the state (temporary subsistence), nor their lifestyles and preferences. Making racist remarks, only provokes resentment, hatred and possibly ethnic clash.
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Wuliangguobinjiu / April 19, 2013
Quite rightly Germany does not want Turkey and its hooded ghosts.
Down with the uncivilized Sharia laws world wide.
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Gen / April 19, 2013
The German Government has officially acknowledged – only western country to do so – that there are going to be 50 million Muslims in Germany by the year 2030. Same situation in almost all the Western countries.
This increase not only by birth but more and more people from other faiths are coming to Islam.
When you create more controversies about Islam and Muslims more and more people to try learn about it, find it a good religion and way of life, and become Muslims.
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Kamal / April 19, 2013
“…Muslim immigrants in the west struggle to respect…”. There is a difference between ‘not respecting’ and ‘not integrating’. The German Turks and Arabs are law abiding citizens. Attacking them in the name of ‘not integrating’ is like equating them to having committed some crime.
The origin of German Turks go back to the 17th century. The bulk of them came to Germany after the second world war through a treaty. Sarrazin is a racist. Even the Jewish council in Germany has declared this. If the Turks and Arabs have not integrated, that is their prerogative. It also shows the weakness of the host country’s system or the strength of the immigrant’s faith and culture. German Turks and Arabs are voluntarily perpetuating their cultural distinctiveness. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said that ‘intolerance’ is a form of violence. Instead of wearing scarfs if the girls show off their flesh would that be okay for Sarrazin or if Muslim men start gay marriages would that be okay? Why did Hitler kill the Jews? What about neo-Nazism? The German Turks form only about 2+% of the German population.
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Goraka / April 19, 2013
Today attack Muslims and their values, tommorrow the Jews, and then the Christians, then the blacks, then the blue eyes, then the yellow skins, then………When will the madness end?
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Safa / April 19, 2013
Europe has been the breeding ground of racism, from the roman empire to the crusades to nazism to apartheid to right wing facism. The colonial powers exploited the wealth of asia, africa and the middle east. From Hitler to Melosovic to Brevik we find the same theme of Aryan superiority.
Now the West has become the foremost defender of human rights. However when it comes to muslims practicing their religon some people have become ultra sensitive. Then there is no talk of human rights and crimes against humanity. Depends on what integration means. To practice ones religon, speak ones mother tongue and preserve ones heritage and culture is a basic human right.
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Goraka / April 19, 2013
We are all become the “white man’s burden”. White is right, the rest – dumb! And the brown sahibs, agree!
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Jim Hardy / April 21, 2013
Hate speech provoking religious enmity should be banned in any country.
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Ali / May 6, 2013
European Countries, especially Germany have a history of harboring hatred of other cultures and races. Tens of millions of innocent people have been murdered in Europe when this hatred became legitimized.
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