An
IKVU spokeswoman echoed Elyas’s statements, telling channel one of
the German television that such remarks stoke up discrimination
against Muslims.
She
said Huber should have criticized the growing restrictions on public
freedoms instead.
Huber
told Berliner Zeitung daily Thursday, March 25, that police
should crack down on Muslim immigrants and act on suspicions.
Any
Muslim immigrant, he added, suspected of having links with
“terrorist organizations” should be deported immediately.
Huber
claimed that the government’s implementation of rigid anti-terror
laws would not curb personal and public freedoms in the country.
He
said it makes no sense to give those suspects residence permits,
claiming that any leniency with “terror suspects” would leave the
impression that Germany was not serious in protecting its citizens
against “terrorism”.
Huber
further noted that the Muslim community in Germany should strongly
condemn terrorism.
The
opposition coalition of Christian parties has also called for
deporting thousands of non-German Muslims for terror suspicions.
Citing
security reports, the Christian coalition put at 35,000 the number of
Muslim “extremists” that should be expelled.
In
his interview, Huber also opposed giving the European Union’s
membership to the predominantly Muslim Turkey to protect the Christian
identity of the expanding bloc.
He
said Turkey should show some respect to the Christian character of the
E.U.
However,
the IKVU spokeswoman considered Huber's position concerning Turkey's
EU bid "is a call emanating from a unilateral religious concept
that aims at excluding Turkey and shutting it out".
She
further saw that "rejecting Turkey's EU bid would lead to the
increase of extremist tendencies among its population".
Unlike
the forgiving stands of his predecessor, Huber is notorious among the
Muslim community for opposing hijab in state-run schools and
institutions.
According
to official estimates, Muslims in Germany make up between 3.5 and
million of the country’s 82 million population while independent
estimates put the figure at over 5 million. The Turks represent some
80 percent of the sizable community.
The
anti-Islam rhetoric has been growing over the past weeks in different
European countries.
