Posted on 04/26/2010 1:03:51 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
A call by a German politician of Turkish origin for a ban on Christian crosses in state schools has sparked uproar in her conservative party and death threats from far-right groups.
Ayguel Oezkan, the 38-year-old daughter of Turkish immigrants, is poised to become social minister in the centre-right government of the western state of Lower Saxony, and called for the ban in an interview with a German magazine.
'Christian symbols do not belong in state schools,' she told weekly Focus last week. 'Schools should be a neutral place.'
Members of her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel, have been quick to denounce the comments and some are demanding she renounce her regional minister role, which she is due to assume tomorrow.
Lower Saxony state premier Christian Wulff, an ally of Ms Merkel who won praise last week for appointing Ms Oezkan to his cabinet, brushed aside her comments as 'personal opinion' and reaffirmed that his government welcomed crosses in schools.
Stefan Mueller, a member of parliament who represents Angela Merkel's CDU and its Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) allies on integration issues, used stronger language, calling the remarks 'absurd and shocking'.
'Politicians who want to ban crosses in schools should think about whether they belong in a Christian party,' Mr Mueller was quoted as saying in German media.
Ms Oezkan, a lawyer who was born in Hamburg to parents who migrated to Germany in the 1960s, said in an interview with German daily Bild that she did not consider herself a devout Muslim but that her family celebrated Islamic holidays.
Ms Oezkan, who would be the first state minister of Turkish origin in Germany, told the paper she had received death threats.
She is reportedly under 24-hour protection from police.
(Excerpt) Read more at rte.ie ...
banned: homeschooling and crosses
She belongs to a party called the Christian Democrats and she is against Crosses in school. Can anyone help me here, what am I missing?
Boot her out of the CDU. Let her run as SPD or Green Party or the Islamic Party.
The CDU needs to be more like the CSU.
What’s funny, is to my understanding, actual Christian belief is tragically lacking throughout Germany.
They may claim Christ, but it seems no more serious than American Jews claim God.
Do you see a nation of Seinfelds keeping to what God says? Neither do I.
That can't be a good thing...
This is what will happen when muslims take power.
Too bad that others under death threats from muslims can't get the same kid glove treatment.
Nothing. You just need to re-read this line...
Ms Oezkan, a lawyer who was born in Hamburg to parents who migrated to Germany in the 1960s, said in an interview with German daily Bild that she did not consider herself a devout Muslim but that her family celebrated Islamic holidays.
So the US “separation of church and state” applies to Europe too? Why doesn’t it apply to the Islamic supremacist nations that live under and Islamic theocracy that discriminate against non-muslims in their legal system?
If christian stuff gets banned islamic stuff should be banned too.
That would be dangerous. We don't have an equivalent here, but she would be in a position to bend the government's position more and more to succumb to the minority Muslim population.
Can you say, "infiltrate and destroy"?
In military terms such people are called 'spies'. In government terms they are called 'subversives'. In Christian terms they are called "'wolves in sheep's clothing'. But you know that Christianity is in trouble when the wolves come in wolves clothing, (Islam). Satan is bold these days, eh?
Having lived there for 7 years I can confirm that the churches are largely lovely cultural showpieces.
As devout perpetual tourists while there (all of our travels involved an elment of pilgrimage visitin our Christian cultural patrimony) we often observed what you wrote.
Happily there are pockets of hope, but it was so sad to walk through “museums” to the faith, rather then houses of worship.
Homeschooling has ALWAYS been banned in modern Germany. (As it was in America until about 30 years ago...).
The Germans are too afraid of radicals (that would be neo-Nazis and Islamists) bringing their kids up in isolation without integrating them into the larger German society...
Given their history, understandable, in my opinion.
Homeschooling was outlawed by the Nazis. They kept the policies.
She is a DEVOUT Muslim, can’t you understand?
She need to come to the United States if she’s turned out of office. Hussein Obama can find a position for her in his administration.
Cite me your evidence for that. German bureaucracy, and European governments generally, were very controlling, LONG BEFORE the Nazis.
It's very easy to blame anything we don't like in Germany on the Nazis...and tends to end the discussion, eh?
Truancy laws....found in the USA from the 19th Century onwards, and in Europe before the USA, corresponding with mandatory public education, are what generally have been used as "anti-homeschooling" regulations.
I'm not saying German law about homeschooling is good--but understandably GIVEN THEIR HISTORY they want to make sure little radical groups are not mis-educating their children.
The biggest German fear now, is that the Moslem immigrants will homeschool their kids to be Islamic terrorists...
Homeschooling is illegal in Germany since Hitler banned it in 1938.
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1330
One article on parents who tried to do so. You’ll find extensive articles on the subject. Germany is particularly notorious on this draconian ban.
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