SWC Denounces German Politician's Decision to Allow Muslim Students from not Visiting German Concentrations Camps

June 1, 2015

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE-EUROPE

Tel: +33(0)1 47 23 76 37

Fax: +33(0)1 47 20 84 01

Mail: csweurope@gmail.com

 

"Will your 20 million euro training programme for Islamic instructors be similarly ‘Nazirein’, serving as a recipe for Jihadism and ISIS recruitment?"

 

Paris

 

In a letter to German Federal Education Minister, Dr. Johanna Wanka, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed shock at the intent of her Bavarian coalition partner, CSU MP Klaus Steiner (pictured), who, in the regional Parliament, unabashedly called to, 'Exempt Muslim students and other immigrant pupils from mandatory visits to concentration camps, which are normally part of the Holocaust educational programme'.  According to his speech in the Bavarian Parliament, CSU MP Kurt Steiner, argues,' There are a lot of children from Muslim families who do not have a connection to our past... We have to approach this topic carefully with these children'."

 

Samuels said, "To hear such language from a mainstream German politician reeks, at best, as Holocaust denial and, far worse, a German endorsement for such radical Islamist and Iranian intents, summed up as, 'the Holocaust is a lie, let's make it a reality'."

 

The letter noted, "As Minister, we are aware that you will be present at the opening, on 7 June, of the G-7 Summit under German Presidency at the Schloss Ehmau in Bavaria," continuing, "You will be there to announce Germany's 20 million euro,  five year investment  plan to create Centers of Islamic theology at four major Universities: Tubingen, Frankfurt/Giessen, Munster/Osnabruck and Nurenberg/Erlengen. The latter two are in Bavaria, which has a reportedly, checkered Nazi history."

 

Samuels pointed to the Ministry's website explanation, "Four million Muslims in Germany are the third religious group after Catholics and Protestants.... it is part of modern integration policy.... to train religious educators and specialized religious scholars...who will go on to work in mosques...Islamic religious education is to train 2,000 instructors for German schools...to offer students the chance to approach the

Koran...."

 

see:
www.bmbf.de/en/index.php
&

www.bmbf.de/en/15619.php?piwik_campaign=TagCloud&piwik_kwd=Islamic%20Theology

 

The Centre argued, "At a time of increasingly rampant anti-Semitism and even anti-Semitic terrorism across Europe, the Steiner Bavarian plan, together with your generous Federal Islamic education programme seems a recipe for Jihadism, Isis recruitment and incitement to Jew-hatred, to be inevitably followed by attacks on other traditional Nazi victims: Roma, gays, women and disabled."

 

The letter called on the Minister to, “Unequivocally reject the Steiner initiative and ensure that your Muslim instructors’ programme include an adequate Holocaust module, such as a mandatory visit to the Yad Vashem memorial museum in Jerusalem."

 

"By suppressing the concentration camp visit for young Muslims, Germany may evoke for some, iconized memories of the 1930's Fuhrer-Mufti alliance as a paradigm for contemporary Islamism," concluded Samuels.

 

For further information please contact Shimon Samuels 00 336 09 77 01 58,  join the Center on Facebook,  www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).