Anger, fear and exasperation among German Muslims after the Hanau attack

Germany has been rocked by one of the worst far-right attacks in its recent history: at around 10pm local time on the evening of Wednesday, February 19, a gunman opened fire on two Shisha bars in the town of Hanau, around 25km from Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt. Racially motivated gun attacks on two hookah establishments…

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As the far right seeks to co-opt the Jewish vote, uncomfortable questions about Germany’s culture of memory arise

On October 7, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party welcomed the creation of its newest inner-party pressure group: up to 20 Jewish AfD members gathered in the Hessian city of Offenbach to form a circle aiming to represent Jewish interests within and through the AfD. The move has been trumpeted by a number of…

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New German cabinet criticised for its lack of diversity

After months of arduous negotiations following September 2017’s federal elections, the new German government was sworn in on March 14. Complex personnel choices After the cornerstones of the coalition deal had been agreed upon in early February, the three participating parties – Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its conservative Bavarian sister party CSU, and…

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Muslims in Germany: The long road to acceptance and the ‘integration’ paradigm

In an article appearing on Qantara, Deutsche Welle‘s online platform seeking to foster cross-cultural dialogue with, broadly speaking, the Islamic world, journalist Tonio Postel takes stock of Muslim life in Germany between participation and exclusion, integration and Islamophobia. Growing participation of Muslim migrants in society The exercise is a welcome one. Given the plethora of more…

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New law against online hate speech causes stir in Germany as AfD politician’s twitter is suspended

On January 1, 2018, a new law went into effect in Germany with the aim of curbing ‘fake news’ and hate speech online. The Act for the Improvement of Law Enforcement on Social Networks – thankfully shortened in common parlance to the Network Enforcement Law (Netzdurchsetzungsgesetz) targets social media such as Twitter and Facebook, seen…

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