CAIRO – An integration summit called by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to bring ethnic minorities into mainstream society was overshadowed by a boycott of Turks, the country’s largest minority, in protest at the recently approved integration law that they say discriminates against Muslims, reported Deutsche Welle on Friday, July 13. “The Turkish community is not…
A German book author said he wants to read aloud inside a Cologne mosque from “The Satanic Verses,” the 1988 novel by Salman Rushdie that some Muslims consider blasphemous and led to a 1989 fatwa against Rushdie. Just before political and religious leaders met in Berlin for the second national integration summit, journalist and author…
Four groups representing Germany’s Turkish population have refused to take part in Angela Merkel’s integration summit being held Thursday. German commentators are divided over whether the groups have a point or whether they are just proving that Turks in Germany don’t want to integrate. Four major organizations representing the Turkish community in Germany have boycotted…
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday called Germany’s new integration plan for immigrants “a milestone” and rejected criticism from ethnic Turkish groups who boycotted a key summit on the issue. Merkel was speaking at a press conference following a meeting with ethnic leaders in Berlin to announce government assistance to minorities which are widely seen as…
Ulrich William, the spokesman of the government, announced that the Federal Cabinet agreed to extend the deadline for constructing Germany’s integration plan from the end of 2006 to the middle of 2007. The forthcoming integration summit will be the prelude to the development of a proper plan of action. The Cabinet adopted a position paper,…
