Her notice was primarily meant as a grant to the conservative grassroots of her own party. What's more, anti-Islam voices and aggression toward immigration are increasing amongst the voting public as well. In his book, Germany is Doing Away with Itself, published this summer, ex-politician and Deutsche Bank board member Thilo Sarrazin opened the floodgates for public disputation on multiculturalism when he claimed that the high rank of immigration into Germany was leading to a dangerous civilisational decline, in the process spoiling the high-quality German gene pool. It is unacceptable to abnegate that uncontrolled immigration has created integration problems in Europe in the past. Germany, and Eu in general, has alarming integration problems. Large parts of the migrant community, for instance, cut themselves off from mainstream society, feeling excluded in many cases due to a really poor control of the German language. Because of this virulent language problem, teachers at some schools cannot run regular classes anymore because students do not realize what is being communicated. And there are many young migrant men living in Germany who, feeling alienated, cut themselves off from the sleep of order and get more subject to extremist thinking, which perhaps explains a 2006 failed train bombing plot involved two Lebanese youth who had been living in Germany for various years. Though, needless to say, only a bit amount of these migrant men are ready to carry out terrorist acts. This argument is shameful, seeing as Germany owes its advance as one of the world's most affluent nations not least of all to the hard-working Turkish immigrants that were lured here beginning in the 1960s. Without them, Germany would not be the fat country it is today. Policymakers in Berlin are mindful of these issues, and no one is disposed to call today that coexistence in a pluralistic society is possible without basic values that practice to one and all. The political establishment knows that the integration problems we are facing today can be attributed primarily to a socio-political problem not a hereditary or religious one. The absurd theses put forth by Sarrazin can be refuted swiftly just by winning a quick glance over the Atlantic: in the United States, immigrant Muslims (two thirds of Muslim Americans are foreign-born) are more fully integrated and economically more successful than immigrants of other backgrounds there, according to a 2007 Pew Survey, and they also enjoy a higher stage of education. Another element that perhaps led to Merkels statement is that the economical crisis in Germany, as in Europe at large, has given rise to a spreading climate of uncertainty. In unsettled times, people get nervousand nervous people tend to do more aggressively. The basic democratic order, however, is not rooted in economic prosperity but rather in ideas. Ideas like equal rights and freedom of religions. And, under Merkel, the German government has done a big care to advertise these values. During the last legislature period, for example, Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schuble assertively stated that Islamism is voice of Germany. And new German President Christian Wulff reinforced this substance in his 3 October speech on the Day of German Unity, commemorating the anniversary of the 1990 German reunification. However, the criticism Wulff subsequently reaped from his company and the worldwide population was substantial, exposing a prevalent perception that he was undermining Western cultural values. The opponent is really the case. With this message, Wulff underscored that Christians living in Turkey, like Muslims living in Germany, have the good to equal treatment. And those who call that the Western world must abide by its Christian roots and categorically deny Islam any recognition, are in reality working toward the abolition of republic and spiritual freedom. So, no, multiculturalism is not dead. Because a province that is based on fundamental democratic values, like exemption of worship, demonstrates its true strength not in rejecting, but in affirming its ethnic diversity. That has ever been the case, and forever will be. ### * Lewis Gropp is a freelance journalist based in Cologne, Germany. Specialising in faith issues and global literature, he is likewise an editor at Qantara.de, an online magazine that covers issues relating to the W and the Islamic world. This article was written for the Usual Ground News Service (CGNews). Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 9 November 2010, www.commongroundnews.org
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