Cologne: Germans see large mosques as provocation

This article reports that many Germans perceive the construction of large mosques as a provocation. Such buildings are only a provocation if one is offended by the possibility that Muslims take part as equal citizens in a Western society. In my experience Turkish Muslims are particularly valuable members of society. As a group, they are among the most zealous in paying debts.

Many German Jews are concerned that Muslim citizens might eventually force an open debate on Germany's special relationship with Israel.

According to the article:

The vice president of the Jewish Central Council in Germany, Salomon Korn, calls on Muslims to take into consideration the feeling of the population and to renounced buildings which cause the Germans irritations.

"For most Germany mosques look like exotic buildings and minarets are striking as ruling symbols," says Salomon Korn in an interview to newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. He thinks that Muslims should get more modern mosques, that do not have the same form as traditional mosques.

Yet one must wonder whether German non-Jews would even know that these new mosques were irritating if Jewish gatekeepers and facilitators in the media were not constantly making an issue of the Muslim presence in Germany. During the height of the Roxbury Mosque controversy, officials from the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland visited to consult with the Boston Organized Jewish community in which the Islamophobes at the David Project are very prominent.

In the past Germans or Austrians and Muslims have had no particularly difficulty in living together under German (Prussian) or Austrian rule. Gmina Radziłów in Poland was under Prussian rule from the first partition of Poland until 1809. The local Muslim population were members of the Polish aristocracy while the local Germans belonged to the local peasantry. As far as I know the groups had no problems. Austria-Hungary ruled Bosnian from 1878 with no problems until a Bosnian Serb Orthodox Christian assassinated Archduke Ferdinand and started WWI. Sphere: Related Content