Free Republic

A week after Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirmed her government’s commitment to fight anti-Semitism at a landmark rally in Berlin, a lot needs to be done on the ground to stop the rising tide of anti-Semitism. At home, German Law enforcement authorities have not only shown apathy and inaction, as in the case of the Muslim Imam in Berlin who called for the extermination of Jews, or against demonstrators in many German cities blaring anti-Semitic slogans. Police have sometimes seemed to go out of their way, allowing demonstrators to use police-megaphones and vehicles to spread the hate – as in Frankfurt...

German Islamists who join the IS have forfeited their citizenship many Union politicians say. They are planning a change of legislation. Union politicians want to avoid any german national to fight for the terrorist group Islamic State (IS). A corresponding change in the law would achieve a "huge deterrent effect," the chairman of the Bundestag's Committee on Internal Affairs, Wolfgang Bosbach (CDU)told "Welt am Sonntag". Those who join this "terrorist army" ng document their departure from the values of the Federal Republic he said.

Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania have agreed to set up joint military unit of several thousand soldiers. Defence ministers from the three countries signed the deal on Friday. Poland's defence ministry said the brigade would be based in the eastern Polish city of Lublin but the soldiers would remain in their home countries. Poland and Lithuania are eager to bolster defences following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula earlier this year.

As war in Syria and Iraq attracts a growing number of Muslim extremists from Europe, intelligence officials in Germany believe a former gangsta rapper has joined the inner circle of Islamists fighting there. Denis Cuspert was once a modestly successful member of Germany's hip-hop scene going by the stage name Deso Dogg. Now he calls himself Abu Talha the German and is a top propagandist for the so-called Islamic State (IS) caliphate, which is blamed for several wartime atrocities. His ascent into the upper IS ranks is raising concerns that such "homegrown" Islamists could embolden Muslim extremists in Germany or...

Angela Merkel is the stand-up lady of Europe. The German chancellor is forthright in calling anti-Semites to account. She spoke this week to a rally of 6,000 Germans at the Brandenburg Gate, denouncing the documented increase of anti-Semitism in their country. The evil of the Nazi regime, which killed 6 million Jews in Europe 80 years ago, is marked everywhere, with bronze plaques on sidewalks where Jews were taken from their homes and dispatched to death camps, to the five acres dedicated to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in the very center of Berlin. And yet, as the chancellor...

More than three dozen nations have signed on to the anti-Islamic State coalition, US officials say. But Russia and Iran are also likely to play roles, and some Arab countries will prefer to keep quiet about their help.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that in Germany, multiculturalism has “utterly failed.” Both Australia’s ex-prime minister John Howard and Spain’s ex-prime minister Jose Maria Aznar reached the same conclusion about multiculturalism in their countries. British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that multiculturalism is fostering extremist ideology and directly contributing to homegrown Islamic terrorism. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said the United Kingdom’s push for multiculturalism has not united Britons but pushed them apart. It has allowed for Islam to emerge despite Britain’s Judeo-Christian culture. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the roots of violent Islamism are not...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has exposed that Hamas is running a human trafficking network, smuggling Gaza residents to Europe for $2,000 to $3,500 per person. The charges come following reports that dozens of Palestinian Arabs drowned last week after leaving Gaza for Egypt, where they boarded an ill-fated ship bound for Europe that never reached its goal, reports Kol Yisrael (Israel Radio). Apparently Hamas used its hundreds of smuggling tunnels into the Sinai Peninsula to funnel the would-be immigrants out of Gaza and into Egypt; while an Egyptian siege limited the usage of those smuggling tunnels,...

Investors have bought billions of euros in German treasury notes that pay negative interest—meaning the purchasers agreed to pay a small fee for the privilege of lending the German government their money. […] Germany auctioned €3.34 billion ($4.3 billion) Wednesday in two-year notes at an average yield of minus 0.07 percent. Rates are very low all over, and German debt is considered ultra-safe, so security-minded investors are paying for safety. Expectation the European Central Bank will buy bonds has also driven down yields, which move opposite to prices. And the small negative yield on the notes is still a better...

Pro-ISIS protesters in Germany. Photo: Veooz. COPENHAGEN, Denmark – A German national accused of fighting for the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) in Syria is on trial in Germany, in the first case of its kind. Kreshnik Berisha, a German-born 20-year-old whose parents are originally from Kosovo, faces a prison term of up to 10 years if found guilty. Prosecutor Horst Salzmann wrote in a press release that Berisha “wanted to create a theocracy under Shariah law. He took the oath. He was ready to die for his goals.”  Salzmann said that Berisha traveled to Syria via Turkey in July 2013...

It has gotten so bad that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to combat it, and even the New York Times has to acknowledge it. Of course, they don’t mention its Qur’anic roots — the fact that the Qur’an calls Jews the worst enemies of the Muslims (5:82), says they are under Allah’s curse (9:30) and more.“What’s Behind Germany’s New Anti-Semitism,” by Jochen Bittner, New York Times, September 16, 2014: HAMBURG, Germany — Europe is living through a new wave of anti-Semitism. The president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews calls it the worst the Continent has seen since World...

US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet foreign ministers from around the world in Paris on Monday to discuss how to defeat Islamic State (IS) militants. French President Francois Hollande said the beheading of a British aid worker showed the world must act against IS. About 40 countries, including 10 Arab states, have signed up to a coalition to help fight IS in Iraq and Syria. Several Arab countries have offered to take part in air strikes on IS fighters in Iraq, US officials say. Mr Kerry says he is "extremely encouraged" by promises of military assistance to tackle...

Germany’s flagship Bard 1 offshore wind farm has been described as “a faulty total system” as technical problems continue to plague the project, casting major doubts on the feasibility of large scale offshore projects. The wind farm was officially turned on in August last year but was shut down again almost immediately due to technical difficulties that have still not been resolved – and now lawyers are getting involved. The wind farm comprises 80 5MW turbines situated 100 km off the north German coastline. The difficulty facing engineers is how to get the electricity generated back to shore. So far,...

The increasing predilection for fragmentation across the continent will result in Teutonic political hegemony - if we're lucky ___ Europe is disintegrating. Two large and ancient kingdoms are near the point of rupture as Spain follows Britain into constitutional crisis, joined like Siamese twins. The post-Habsburg order further east is suddenly prey to a corrosive notion that settled borders are up for grabs. "Problems frozen for decades are warming up again," said Giles Merritt, from Friends of Europe in Brussels. The best we can hope for - should tribalism prevail - is German political hegemony in Europe. The German people...

Ukraine's defense minister said on Sunday that NATO countries were delivering weapons to his country to equip it to fight pro-Russian separatists and "stop" Russian President Vladimir Putin. Valery Heletey told a news conference he had discussed weapons deliveries in bilateral meetings with NATO defense ministers during a NATO summit in Wales on Sept. 4-5.

The euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken big strides forward in regional elections in two eastern German states. Results are emerging from votes in Thuringia and Brandenburg. Results of exit polls released just before the close of voting on Sunday showed the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was founded only last year, had gained 10 percent of the vote in Thuringia and 12 percent of the vote in Brandenburg, meaning it has won a place in the parliaments of both states for the first time. A fortnight ago the AfD was elected to the regional parliament in another...

Salafists who caused outrage by mounting patrols in western Germany as "Shariah Police" have ditched their vests and changed their name, but pledged to continue to take action. It comes as political leaders were accused of creating a "safe zone" for Islamists. North Rhine-Westphalia has become the national front runner in imports and exports of holy warriors,” Christian Democratic Union (CDU) state parliament member and interior policy spokesman Theo Kruse said on Friday. Kruse argued that the state had become a “national space of peace and recovery for Salafists" and a "safe zone" for Islamists. ... Salafism is the fastest-growing...

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Friday that neo-Nazi vandalism and threats against a local newspaper in eastern Germany were “unacceptable and must be stopped”. This week vandals sprayed the words “Jews” and the Nazi slogan “Sieg Heil” on the office windows of the Lausitzer Rundschau, a newspaper known for its coverage of far-right groups. …

BERLIN — When Marie Duness-Rose, 39, immigrated to Germany from Bulgaria 10 years ago, she left a lot behind, she says. But now she holds a management degree and runs a thriving bistro serving Balkan food in a popular neighborhood in Berlin. She is one of about 6.2 million non-German citizens in the country and one of about 15 million — or 19 percent of the total population — who are not ethnically German. That percentage is one of the highest proportions of immigrants in any European country, and it is not expected to decrease any time soon. Last month,...

A quarter-century after the Berlin Wall crumbled, an election this weekend may show whether Germany is ready for its first state governor from the party descended from East Germany’s communist rulers. The opposition Left Party hopes to end the 24-year grip of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives on the governor's office in eastern Thuringia state Sunday. While his party emerged from the old communist guard, Left Party candidate Bodo Ramelow is anything but a throwback to Soviet times. The 58-year-old, a practicing Protestant and West German native, went east when Germany reunited in 1990 as a labor union official and later...