The debate on Islamism and political Islam in Germany is flaring up again. Earlier this month, a position paper by politicians of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) is, for the first time, calling for targeted measures against what is being dubbed as ‘Islamist infiltration’ into society. The allusion is to what…
Tareq Alaows is a Syrian politician, activist and legal advisor living in Germany, and is making his mark as the first Syrian refugee candidate for the German parliament, the Bundestag. Representing the Green Party, he plans to stand as representative of the electoral district of Oberhausen, come the state elections of North-Rhine Westphalia in the…
On August 31, 2015, Angela Merkel uttered a phrase that many1 have come to see as defining her 15-year tenure in power: in response to growing numbers of refugees arriving primarily from war-torn Syria and Iraq, the German Chancellor stated that “Germany is a strong country. The motive we’re approaching these things with has to…
While much of the far-right targets Islam as a foreign and undesirable religion, Muslims and ex-Muslims are “increasingly prominent” in the West European far right groups, bringing a new spirituality to this often secular movement, writes Julian Gopffarth and Esra Ozyurek in the journal Ethnicities (online in June, 2020). When most far right groups and leaders have…
On June 17, 2020, human rights advocates filed a potentially path-breaking complaint with the German federal public prosecutor: brought by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) on behalf of seven Syrians, the complaint demands that Germany prosecute nine high-ranking Syrian government officials for sexual and gender-based violence committed during Syria’s 9-year-long war….
