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If he is voted in as chancellor, Stoiber pledged himself to the deportation of 4,000 Muslims
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GERMANY,
September 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As yet a further
example of discrimination against Muslims in the West since the
September 11 attacks on the United States, a candidate in Germany’s
upcoming elections promised voters to deport 4000 Muslims from the
country if he won.
If
he is voted in as chancellor on Sunday, September 22, conservative
candidate Edmund Stoiber pledged himself to the deportation of 4,000
Muslims, the British daily newspaper, the Guardian, reported
Thursday, September 19.
Behind
in most polls, the Bavarian governor - a hard-liner on law and order -
appeared to be making a last-gasp effort to tap into fears over a link
between immigration and terrorism in
Europe
, the daily
said.
He
told a rowdy crowd, packed into the market
square
of
Werne
, on the edge
of the
Ruhr
district,
that there were 30,000 identified Muslim fundamentalist extremists in
Germany
.
"Among
these 30,000 so-called Islamists, there are 4,000 who are ready for
violence, " he claimed. "The police know that; 4,000 are
known by name as being disposed to violence and are suspected of
belonging to foreign terrorist organizations such as the Algerian GIA.
I say to you: these 4,000 - I will expel them from the country."
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Stoiber's home affairs spokesman Günther Beckstein declared that immigrants should pay for integration courses and recognize values "molded by Christianity" |
Stoiber
made no reference in his speech to any kind of judicial process, and
it was not clear how he intended to carry out the deportations under
existing laws. Legislation that came into effect last December
abolished a ban on the investigation of foreigners based in
Germany
and
considered to be terrorist suspects by other states. But the law as it
stands does not allow the authorities to deport anyone on mere
suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization, said the Guardian.
Stoiber's
undertaking can be expected to provoke indignant criticism from
representatives of Germany's Muslim minority, coming as it does only
two days after he and his lieutenants pulled the issues of race and
immigration into the election for the first time.
The
Bavarian governor, who is trailing by up to three points in the polls
after Gerhard Schröder staged a remarkable comeback, said that
with 4 million unemployed it would be "irresponsible to open the
market to everyone".
The
Guardian added that Stoiber's home affairs spokesman went much
further, declaring that immigrants should not only be made to take
integration courses, but they should also be made to pay for them. Günther
Beckstein added that foreigners intending to live in
Germany
should
recognize underlying values "molded by Christianity".
