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Germany's Pseudo Culture War
A debate on the integration of Muslims is raging in Germany. But the middle ground is missing from the discussion. It's time to stop throwing verbal darts and take a realistic look at the country's Turkish minority. Germans are good at this sort of thing. Make a controversial statement, and then sit back and watch as the newspapers, television stations, radio, intelligentsia and politicians whirl themselves into semi-hysterical fits, each attempting to one-up the other. And once the debate -- and the related violence -- in Holland about the (non) integration of its Muslim population got going with the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh three weeks ago, it was clear that Germany would fall all over itself to scrutinize its own 3.2 million-strong Muslim population.And it has. Computer keyboards across the country are smoking as editorialists pontificate on the pros and cons of multiculturalism. Over the weekend, 20,000 Muslim Germans -- mostly Turkish -- took to the streets of Cologne in an anti-terrorism demonstration. Politicians of all stripes this week are offering up platitudes, demands and warnings and a general consensus is slowly emerging that integration of Muslims in Germany just isn't working. But this current discussion isn't just a measured exchange of opinions among politicians and between Germany's Christians and Muslims. It is heated, bordering on unhelpful, and on the verge of becoming poisoned. On top of that, a word has been reintroduced into the debate that says volumes about how far along Germany is in integrating its mostly-Turkish Muslim population: "Leitkultur," a word that made headlines five years ago and means "dominant" or "guiding" culture. Posted by: tipper 2004-11-24 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=49638 |