News item: Erotica to be banned in Islamic Republic of Europe

[Roxanne Appleby]

I'm taking it down - it's too depressing.

The original content of this post was the article "It's the Demography, Stupid - The real reason the West is in danger of extinction" (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760 I took it down because it's too depressing. Seeing Selena's av below convinced me to instead just pop a cork, enjoy the scenery, and tune out the world for the next 60 years or so. But I would recommend that none of your children have daughters in Europe - girls don't thrive under Sharia.
Sorry gang.

 

[TheEarl]

Oh for god's sake. In the 16C, Japan's population was nearly double that of the entirety of Europe. Nowadays it's a fraction.

Yui - are you feeling oppressed, overrun or like there is no world for Japanese or Nissei people yet?

....

She seems fine.

The Earl

 

[cantdog]

I refuse to believe the malarkey about clashes of civilizations, here. Also, I am unconcerned with any differentials in any birth rates. I can face demographics of that kind without alarm.

Nobody went in to the place with the second largest oil reserves in the world (which was led by a client who had been rebelling) and set up permanent bases because there is a conflict between civilizations. No, we went in to the place with the second largest oil reserves in the world (which was led by a client who had been rebelling) and set up permanent bases because we want bases, because we wish to control oil, and because the leader had to be replaced. Any hifalutin clash of civs hooey can go find someone else to buy into it.

 

[cantdog]

Please remember that until we turned the place into a bombed out no man's land, Iraq offered no support, neither political nor monetary, to any fundie Islamists whatever. Our clash with Iraq was self-generated.

There is a clash of civilizations in the minds of the fundie Islamists, the fundie Christians, and the Zionists. I do not belong to any of those groups. Any alarm you feel about the possibility of larger proportions of brown people is racist alarm. I am not racist either.

Once you leave Iraq and the birthrates and the crusader spirit out of the argument, this article really isn't addressing much.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20051104/160_chicken_little.jpg

 

[cloudy]

Any alarm you feel about the possibility of larger proportions of brown people is racist alarm. I am not racist either.

Ayup. Right on, again, cant.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

what utter bollocks.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Any alarm you feel about the possibility of larger proportions of brown people is racist alarm. I am not racist either.

I'm sorry I posted it, and have taken down all but the link. Seeing Selena's av convinced me to instead just pop a cork, enjoy the scenery, and tune out the world for the next 60 years or so. But here is one quote from the article:
“If 100% of your population believes in liberal pluralist democracy, it doesn't matter whether 70% of them are "white" or only 5% are. But if one part of your population believes in liberal pluralist democracy and the other doesn't, then it becomes a matter of great importance whether the part that does is 90% of the population or only 60%, 50%, 45%.”

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

what utter bollocks.

That kind of statement is why I divorced you, Geronimo.
(Just kidding - as a newbie I never heard of him until this post.)

 

[geronimo_appleby]

That kind of statement is why I divorced you, Geronimo.
(Just kidding - as a newbie I never heard of him until this post.)

...and if you check the joined date i've been around a little time.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Seeing Selena's av convinced me to instead just pop a cork, enjoy the scenery...

ahhh there ya go...

I knew it was good for *something*!

 

[rgraham666]

Roxanne, I want to like you, I really do.

But you're making it very, very hard.

Western civilisation is only in danger from itself. That is always the biggest danger to any great civilisation.

All the great civilisations fell to the enemy within their gates, not to the barbarians outside them.

 

[matriarch]

Roxanne, I want to like you, I really do.

But you're making it very, very hard.

Western civilisation is only in danger from itself. That is always the biggest danger to any great civilisation.

All the great civilisations fell to the enemy within their gates, not to the barbarians outside them.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Obviously, the post inspired some harsh critique.

For those who jump immediatly to call the post crackpot, have you examined the birthrate in Lebanon? At one point there was a marionite (christian sect) majority there. Now there is almost asuredly a shia muslim majority.

Isreael has long recognized the birthrate of shia arabs will create an arab majority within the jewish state in the foreseeable future, this is even if they continue to refuse the "right of return".

Shia birthrates are staggering. That isn't religious though, it's a simple function of the fact most of the shia arabs in both countries live in grinding poverty. Without trying to sound flippant, when you are poor, there isn't a boatload of things to do on a monday night. Sex is one of the few options avialable for diversion, no mater what your socico-economic situation. And the poor tend to be less concerned about having another child, because the mortality rates are high and, it isn't like another mouth to feed is going to force them to rearrange their 401K's so they can still retire at 50.

The high birhrate of muslims should be a concern to all. Not because they can breed themselve sinto a majority, but because their kids are likely to be poor as well. It's a self perpetuating situation and someone, somewhere, somehow, must begin education people who live in poverty, that the responsibilities and costs of multiple children almost guarentee they will continue to be poor and their children will, most likely face the same cycle.

There are so many societal, Religious and cultural questions that must be addressed. It's little wonder no one has yet found a way to deliver the message that works. But someone must try or any hope of alleviating poverty will be lost. Not only for those living in it now, but for the children they are bringing into the world to be the next generation.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm well aware of the birthrate and grinding poverty in the Arab world, Colleen. Please note this is the Arab world. Things are slightly different in the rest of the Muslim world.

And the Muslim world is more likely to turn on itself than turn on us. When you're that poor you have more important concerns than the Glory of Allah. For every war the Arabs fought against Israel, they fought one against themselves, and a few others on top of that.

And if they should turn on us, in a straight up war, they'll lose. They haven't the technology, industry or resources to beat us. They might equip a large army with personal weapons. So what, modern ordnance, FAEs, cluster munitions, napalm, guided weapons will rip the heart out of such a primitive army.

And Mark Steyn is a twat. I've read him for years and he never wrote anything that wasn't paranoid and mildly delusional.

The biggest threat to the West is ourselves.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I'm well aware of the birthrate and grinding poverty in the Arab world, Colleen. Please note this is the Arab world. Things are slightly different in the rest of the Muslim world.

And the Muslim world is more likely to turn on itself than turn on us. When you're that poor you have more important concerns than the Glory of Allah. For every war the Arabs fought against Israel, they fought one against themselves, and a few others on top of that.

And if they should turn on us, in a straight up war, they'll lose. They haven't the technology, industry or resources to beat us. They might equip a large army with personal weapons. So what, modern ordnance, FAEs, cluster munitions, napalm, guided weapons will rip the heart out of such a primitive army.

And Mark Steyn is a twat. I've read him for years and he never wrote anything that wasn't paranoid and mildly delusional.

The biggest threat to the West is ourselves.

I wasn't thinking in predominantly Arab terms Rob. Nor even in predominantly Muslim terms. Birth rates in Latin Amaerica among Catholics are staggering. As are the birthrates in many african nations where the impetus is more societal than religious. Extra children are extra hands to work the family farm and since they die so frequently, large families are seen as a must.

I was thinking more in terms of people who live in such poverty as a group, no matter what their religious/ethnic/cultural background. The problem isn't tied to a particular race or religion, it's tied to the effects grinding poverty produce. Effects which, I see as largely self perpetuating.

Religion, Culture, Societal forces are myriad and fall into the many reasons delivering the message that having multiple children is part of the problem becomes so difficult.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

But I would recommend that none of your children have daughters in Europe - girls don't thrive under Sharia.

WTF???

 

[rgraham666]

I'm sorry for the people living in other parts of the world, Colleen. It sickens me, but doesn't frighten me.

Any population that grows too fast is soon reined in by Mother Nature. Plague and Famine mostly.

However, their problems are unlikely to reach here. In spite of modern technology, the distances are too great.

I do what I can to help them, which ain't much. But ultimately it is up to them to change. We can't make them. As our misadventure in Iraq has proven.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I'm sorry for the people living in other parts of the world, Colleen. It sickens me, but doesn't frighten me.

Any population that grows too fast is soon reined in by Mother Nature. Plague and Famine mostly.

However, their problems are unlikely to reach here. In spite of modern technology, the distances are too great.

I do what I can to help them, which ain't much. But ultimately it is up to them to change. We can't make them. As our misadventure in Iraq has proven.

I wasn't saying we should be frightened. I said we should be concerned. Concerned in that the cycle is repetitive and if we want to see an end to it, we must find a way to break that cycle.

 

[Pure]

I found the artlcle

almost incoherent, though occasionally, in the past Mr. Steyn has made good points.

1)i gather the muslims are breeding themselve to a position of superiority, and that 2) Europe is to be Islamicized within 40 years, including Sharia law.

3)the west lacks the will to survive and affirm its essential values, i.e., committment to reproducing. 4) instead it's embraced a passive, fatally tolerant, guilty and shallow multiculturalism that is supine in the face of terrorism, including 9-11.
---

what to say. i thought the Catholic Latin Americans, East Indians, and Africans were right in there, in the breeding competition. i thought the Hispanics or persons of color were, through breeding, going to become the US majority. who is the hobgoblin here?

the debate over 'sharia' in shallow, multicultural Ontario went against it, partly due to liberal muslim (largely women's) opposition.

muslims, afaik, have very little political power in Holland, Sweden, France and Italy. so the mechanisms of the alleged takeover are unclear.

in its essence the tenor of the message reminds me of Nazi stuff from the1930's, lamenting that fall of the Aryans, and calling for Kinder Kirche and Kuche (children, church and kitchen). railing against devitalized mongrel societies, calling for a new vital one grounded in blood and soil.

 

[Munachi]

Without trying to sound flippant, when you are poor, there isn't a boatload of things to do on a monday night. Sex is one of the few options avialable for diversion, no mater what your socico-economic situation.

I suppose this part wasn't meant all that serious, but I just wanted to comment on it - most poor people at whose houses I have been (in my case that was mainly in latin america) did only have one room, often shared the bed with their children, if there was a bed. Else, they shared the blankets on the floor with the kids... So I am not quite sure if sex really is a common monday night diversion.

But in the rest you are right, it has a lot to do with children being needed for work (either in the cities to be send out to clean shoes, sell things, etc. etc., or in the country side to help in the fields), as a kind of "insurance" for old age, and education also plays into it... In a peruvian village I did some work in for a few months last year a lot of the families already got into the process of not wanting as much children. I was told that the common number of children a generation ago was 8 or 10 or even more. These days, there were quite a few one-child families, or maybe two children with four or six years between them, though the majority I think had three to four children. The poorest family I knew there did indeed have more children, there were six, and with the youngest being two chances are that there will be more. Another quite poor one only had three children and the mother told me she doesn't want more, but I am not so sure she will keep this.

Something playing into it I guess is also that the mothers are usually quite young... And a certain status that might be attached to having many children, or an expectancy of the mother that having children was what she was supposed to do... This of course will be the case in a big part of the arab world, but as you pointed out, just as much in many christian, and other, countries.



As for islamic people maybe outnumbering "white" people - I live in a part of town that has a big islamic population, mainly turks and kurdish, also some arabs, etc. and they do have more children on average than german families, and german families often tend to move away once their children start school - but that isn't something that makes me worry that the turks might start "outnumbering" us (who is "us" anyway?)... what it makes me worry about is that there is a creation of ghettos this way, thus i would find it important to not move away, but rather stay here and mix more...

anyway, as someone else pointed out, the "islamic world" is quite diverse, and i have islamic friends who in way of thinking etc. are a lot closer to me than a lot of christians are...

 

[Pure]

Some facts about Islam in Sweden, France, Italy, Netherlands

http://euro-islam.info/pages/sweden.html

Sweden

Demographics
Nearly 4% of the population of Sweden [9 mill] is Muslim, approximately 300,000 people.

There is no effective Muslims participation in politics and no publicly religious Muslims in national politics. There are, however, persons with a Muslim background in the Social Democratic party who are in the Swedish Parliament. Recently among them was a Kurdish woman who sometimes expected to represent Muslims as immigrants in Sweden, a role she claims she does not wish for. On the local level, there are at least two Muslims active in the Christian Democratic Party. Finally, there is a Muslim political party, the Politisk Islamisk Samling (PIS, Political Islamic Union). This is an organization with strictly political aims that was formed in 1999. It is the only formal political gathering among Muslims, but it is quite new and its future existence is highly uncertain.
Muslims in Legislatures

In the Swedish legislature after the 2002 elections, there were four members of Muslim ancestry, Maria Hassan, Yvonne Ruwaida, Sermin Özürküt and Mariam Osman Sherifay.

-----------
France

Demographics
There are more than 4 million [7%] Muslims in France [60 million total pop] , with the great majority being from the Maghreb (1,550,000 of Algerian origin, 1,000,000 of Moroccan origin, and 350,000 of Tunisian origin). There are also 100,000 from various Middle Eastern countries, 315,000 from Turkey, 250,000 from sub-Saharan Africa, 100,000 Asians, and some 40,000 converts. There are also approximately 350,000 asylum applicants and illegal workers who are Muslim. […]
Muslims in Legislatures


There are no Muslim members of the national legislature, but the country is represented by Harlem Désir and Tokia Saïfi in the European Parliament


Security, Immigration and Anti Terrorism Issues
In France, the legal code bans incitement to racial discrimination, race hatred and violence against members of other races (Law of 29 July 1881, Art.24, Section V & Penal Code, Art.625-7).

The legislative response to September 11th came first in the Law on Everyday Security passed November 15th of 2001. It has been particularly controversial, as it clearly extends far beyond the boundaries of what normally could be considered counter-terrorism. Along with relatively minor juvenile delinquency measures, police powers were substantially expanded. Stop and search of vehicles in the context of terrorism investigations became legal without prior court approval.

This policy clearly has the potential for abuse. It became legal to search unoccupied premises at night with a warrant but without notification of the owner and previously private police records were made available to terrorism investigators. Probably most controversial, however, has been the push to have much more extensive monitoring and recording of electronic transactions. E-mail can now be monitored much more easily, and the new law required records to be kept tracking communications.
French immigration policy is based on two broad main principles: equality for all backgrounds and the expectation that immigrants will fully integrate into French society.8

As with many other European countries, from the post-war years until the 1970’s the policy tended towards open acceptance of immigrants to support the national economy. During the widespread economic malaise of the 1970’s, immigrants became much less welcome, as they were seen as contributing to employment problems. France struck agreements with the main countries of origin to provide for social and political services for migrants and developed policies to encourage return to native countries.

These policies were not very successful.9 Over the course of the 1980’s and 1990’s, more restrictive laws were passed to reduce and reverse immigrant flows. However, in response to new policies from the European Union, many of these were softened to prevent discrimination during the last few years. After September 11th, the French government trended back towards more restrictive immigration laws. In 2003, a new law entered into force which made it substantially easier to deport individuals who “have committed acts justifying a criminal trial’ or whose behavior ‘threatens public order’. 2003, Law No. 20031176).

--------



Italy

Demographics
In the past ten to 20 years, Italy has been transformed from an emigrant country into an immigrant country. Foreign labour has proven indispensable for accelerating and sustaining the rate of economic development – resulting in the appearance of new minority groups, including a substantial number of Muslims. Muslims constitute the second largest religious community in Italy.

They come from different ethnic groups and different parts of the world, speak different languages, and have different social backgrounds and legal status. In fact, religion often is the only link among these diverse communities. This diversity has lead to an extensive academic debate as to whether Muslims in Italy should be considered a “community” at all.
[…]
Presently, the total Muslim population numbers approximately 700,000 [1.2%] [Total pop 58 million]. About 40,000-50,000 (among them about 10,000 Christians who converted to Islam) are Italian citizens whose rights and obligations are protected and regulated by the same legal provisions that apply to other Italian citizens. However, the majority of Muslims are immigrants who arrived within the past ten to 20 years, and have not obtained Italian citizenship.

Of these, approximately 610,000-615,000 persons have obtained “regular status,” and have the legal right to reside and work in Italy. In addition, 80,000-85,000 persons are “illegal migrants” without residency or work permits.


Italy has formal freedom of religion but provides special status to some, especially the Catholic Church. The concordat between the Catholic Church and the Italian government is long-standing, but many of its legal provisions have been extended to other religions. Despite the large Muslim population, the lack of a clear leadership structure has prevented the state from establishing such an agreement for Islam (US State Dept., 2004). As one might expect, the Catholic Church maintains a clearly preferential relationship with the Italian state (Ferrari, 2005).


The problem of proper representation is cited as the chief cause for the lack of recognition of Muslims as a religious community in a State agreement. The dilemma for the State is that once it recognizes one of the groups as representing the entire Islamic community, with powers to appoint Imams, administer money contributed to religious denominations, etc., other groups may refuse to recognize that group’s representativeness. The State’s position is that it is “too early to conclude such an agreement with Muslims,” until the Muslim community is rooted and proper representation emerges. Experts note that there are “rudiments” of dialogue between the State and Muslims, but that further efforts are necessary.

Muslims in Legislatures

It does not appear that any Muslims have been elected to the national or European legislatures.
----------
The Netherlands

Demographics
There are approximately 700,000 Muslims in the Netherlands, representing nearly five percent of the population.

Muslims in Legislatures

The last elections were held in 2003. The lower house of the legislature has at least ten members from Muslim backgrounds. Nebahat Albayrak, Coskun Çörüz, Fatma Koser Kaya and Fadime Örgü are of Turkish background. Khadija Arib, Naima Azough and Ali Lazrak are of Moroccan ancestry. Also in the legislature are Farah Karimi, Nirmala Rambocus, and Ayaan Hirsi-Ali.
[…]
Security, Immigration and Anti Terrorism Issues

In the Netherlands, after the murder of Theo Van Gogh, the government proposed new anti-terrorism laws to make it easier to arrest terrorist suspects and to hold them for up to two years prior to court dates (IHF, 2005). Newly restrictive immigration laws hve prompted protests from Muslim groups.2

Traditionally, the Netherlands has had one of the developed world’s most liberal immigration policies. As a consequence, large numbers of Muslims entered Dutch cities. Over the last few years, however, the Dutch have begun to tighten up their immigration law. Even prior to September 11th, there were worries about the failure to integrate many of the new arrivals, and a first effort to remedy the situation was made in the late 1990’s.

This policy was intended to teach Dutch language and culture to immigrants, but there were high dropout rates and no enforcement mechanism. Change has begun at both the national and regional levels.3 Foreign imams are now to be investigated by the Dutch Security Service (AIVD). The political responses to the rise of right populist politics and the furor over the murder of Theo Van Gogh seem likely to make this trend continue.

After September 11th, the Netherlands also moved to strengthen anti-terrorism law. This involved new financial reporting, better intelligence coordination, and a stronger police and military. These limited goals seem to have been met.

Aside from this, there are plans to make legislative changes such as the weakening of protections against searches of mosques, and the ability to search outside databases to profile suspects (Netherlands Helsinki Committee, 2003). Some of these plans have already been implemented in a new law passed in 2005.4
In 2003, the Netherlands passed laws requiring special education for imams to ensure that they speak Dutch and maintain allegiance to “Western values”.

 

[cantdog]

Obviously, the post inspired some harsh critique.

For those who jump immediatly to call the post crackpot, have you examined the birthrate in Lebanon? At one point there was a marionite (christian sect) majority there. Now there is almost asuredly a shia muslim majority.

When the mandate was formed, the Maronites were nnot even a plurality. When our Marines were there, the Shi'a in the south were the majority. Lebanon's borders are the arbitrary result of postwar colonialist treaty arrangements. The area was part of the Ottoman empire for a thousand years, before that.

Isreael has long recognized the birthrate of shia arabs will create an arab majority within the jewish state in the foreseeable future, this is even if they continue to refuse the "right of return".

Palestine was all arab before the Zionist terrorists carved a state for themselves out of it.

 

[cantdog]

I see your point, Pure. People really sweat the alien in their midst. But I'm not a nationalist, and not a defender of any religion. I think they are misguided to act as they are acting, demographics or no.

Surely Israel should be beyond the point of shitting their pants because the place is full of arabs. What did they expect?

Germany imported Turks, now suddenly, the presence of all these Turks is a mighty concern. I just don't see it.

 

[Pure]

German figures and situation.

http://euro-islam.info/pages/germany.html

Germany

Demographics

There are approximately 3.5 million Muslims in Germany. Of these, 70% are of Turkish origin.
----

[Pure's comments:] Germany's total pop is about 82.4 million. So Muslims represent about 4% of the total. Catholics and Protestants amount to more than 90%.

Suppose the 78 million non muslims stayed at that number, and the Muslims gained 5% a year.
for 10 years 5.7 million or 7%
for 20 years 9.28 million or 11%
for 40 years 24.6 million or 30%

This is about the time Steyn fears Sharia law would be installed. But for populations, extrapolating growth for 40 years is not very reliable: Obviously percentage gains are larger for a small group, and then gradually diminish. And the same diminishing pattern shows in China, for instance, and in any places where the education and wealth levels increase.

The German situation re immigration assimilation etc is dealt with, here, from the same website as for the other countries.

http://euro-islam.info/pages/germany.html
[verbatim excerpts]

Islamic Education

German practice is to provide denominational religious instruction in schools. Instruction is to be provided by religious communities under government supervision. By law, any community with a sufficient number of students may take part in the program. However, it has been extremely difficult for Muslims to establish religious instruction due to regional governments failing to recognize Islam as a religious community, since there is no consensus organization. However, over the last years, some states have come to agreements with various Islamic groups for instruction. Especially Alevites have been successful, but Turkish groups have also managed in some cases to be accepted.

With fears rising that students who are not in supervised religious courses may be exposed to extremism in unsupervised Koran classes, there has been some impetus for authorities to act. According to the Central Institute of Islamic Archives in Germany, about 18% of all Muslim school children attended Quran schools in 2003. Starting in 2005, there will be a teacher training program at the University of Münster, which is expected to help with shortages of competent instructors and lead towards more equal treatment of Muslims relative to Christians.


Training is provided for Islam at three major institutions: the Muslimische Akademie für Religiöse und Soziale Bildung, DITIB, and the Institut für Islamishe Bildung. There are several other smaller institutions. However, there has been political pressure for the training of more imams in German universities, championed especially by Claudia Roth of the Green Party.

Security, Immigration and Anti Terrorism Issues

In the months after September 11th, Germany developed new policies regarding civil liberties, immigrant rights, the freedom of churches, and law enforcement powers. These new policies were passed in two large packages, the first coming only a week later on September 19th, 2001, and the second on January 1st 2002. These were accompanied by increased security measures, especially at the borders and in aviation security.

The Grundgesetz had always allowed the federal government to ban groups that were considered threatening to the democratic order. However, there was a special exception for religious groups, which could not be banned. Faced with the threat of Islamic terrorism, the German government repealed this exception in the first terrorism package and the idea of a threatening group was redefined to take more account of foreign concerns.

Most of the actual legislative responses to the terrorist attacks came in the second anti-terrorism package. The police were given substantially more power to demand and search records from various sources. Financial records, electronic and postal communications, and most forms of transportation records now became available to the police. Along with this, the police were allowed to use a previously extremely controversial search method called the ‘grid-search’.

This method involves the compilation of records from a number of sources, followed by the statistical profiling of possible terrorism suspects. This power remains controversial, but was presented by the German government as a possible way to identify terrorism suspects who may be undercover as students, as the September 11th attackers were. The new laws also allow a certain amount of eavesdropping and wiretapping in the course of an investigation. Police can now track the location and numbers of cellular phones.

Military Intelligence has received substantially more domestic powers, with easier searches, access to communication records, and the legal ability to communicate its findings with other law enforcement agencies. Given its ostensibly non-domestic purpose, military intelligence is not subject to the same privacy laws regarding personal data and searches. More recently, Minister of the Interior Otto Schily has proposed the practice of preventive detention of terrorism suspects be instituted, although there is not majority support for the measure at this time.4


German society has had some trouble adjusting to its new identity as a receiver of immigrants. After the war, Germany had a serious need for labor in its rapidly recovering economy. To address this, large numbers of immigrants were recruited to Germany for an ostensibly temporary stay. Most of these workers came from Turkey, a reflection of the longstanding ties between Germany and the former Ottoman Empire. In the mid-60’s the process of tightening these laws began. Heinz Kühn, the first Federal Commissioner of Foreigners’ Affairs

[Auslanderbeauftragter] presented a memorandum in 1979, claiming Germany as ‘country of immigration’ and proposing the introduction of measures encouraging integration. Although immigration slowed, government measures greatly improved the situation of existing migrants.5 However, until 1993, there was no right to naturalization, even for those born in the country. The initial rules were quite strict, but they were eased by a change in 1999 first introducing the legal concept of jus soli into German law alongside jus sanguinis.

New laws in 2000 made it much easier for German companies to recruit highly skilled foreign employees. Since September 11th, Germany has substantially tightened its asylum granting procedures and established the legal principle that foreigners considered a threat to German democracy and security can be barred entry and deported.


A new law on immigration took effect in Germany on January 1st, 2005. This law is intended both to increase the immigration of skilled workers to support the German economy and to regulate the influx of asylum seekers and other immigrants considered less desirable. The law will allow easier deportation of individuals in the country for long periods and restrict the granting of residence permits to others.

However the law also broadens the categories of asylum possibilities to encompass gender and non-state persecution. Background checks will now be mandatory, and it will become much easier to deflect and deport those considered to be associated with terrorism.

Further recognizing that there have been problems with integration in German society, the state plans to substantially increase its efforts in this area, including German language training, and courses in German law and culture. Already resident aliens may be forced to participate in these programs or face deportation.6

Education programs have been established and there has been pressure to require that German be used in mosques.7 8 9

[end excerpts]