As the migrant crisis spirals out of control in Europe and though Saudi Arabia refuses to take in any Syrian refugees, they have offered to build 200 new mosques in Germany.
Syria’s richer Gulf neighbours have been accused of not doing their fair share in the humanitarian crisis, with Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the UAE also keeping their doors firmly shut to asylum-seekers.According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which quoted a report in the Lebanese newspaper Al Diyar, Saudi Arabia would build one mosque for every 100 refugees who entered Germany in extraordinary numbers last weekend.
Angela Merkel, who last week announced that Germany would “no longer follow the Dublin accord which stipulated refugees and asylum seekers had to be processed in the first EU member state they arrived in,” is reportedly hopeful that the Syrian refugees will assimilate into German language and culture.
Back in Germany, Angela Merkel welcomed two refugee families at a home for asylum-seekers in the Berlin suburb of Spandau on Thursday.She told reporters after the visit: “Their integration will certainly take place in part via the children, who will learn German very quickly in kindergarten. And I hope and believe that the great majority will want to learn our language very quickly.”Whether she will welcome Saudi Arabia’s reported offer, which Al Diyar noted would “have to go through the federal authorities”, remains to be seen.
Merkel is urging more European countries to adopt her policy toward refugees. Watch:
While Merkel is hopeful for assimilation, or at least that the migrants will learn German, Islamist imams are reportedly already targeting Syrian refugees in Germany, whom they fear may convert to Christianity.
The International Business Times reports:
Salafists in Germany, followers of a fundamentalist and sometimes violent interpretation of Islam which gave birth to the Islamic State, are targeting refugees fleeing the Middle East and Asia for radicalisation.
As more than 4,000 refugees and migrants arrive in the south-east of Europe every day and with 105,000 arriving in Germany in August alone, fears have been raised that the flow of people from Isis-held Iraq, Libya and Syria may pose a security risk.
In Germany the country’s fundamental Islamists have identified those arriving from the embattled nations to the west as ripe for radicalisation. Bavaria-based preacher Pierre Vogel, a proponent of strict Sharia law but who does not advocate violence, has published guidelines in a YouTube video on how his followers should best capitalise on the arriving refugees. He suggests they should form teams to help refugees build shelters and visit them often.
Vogel instructs his fellow Salafists to “bring gifts” and try to gain access to accommodation where refugees are staying. If they are refused they are told to engage with refugees in their local mosques. The Salafists are also concerned that refugees might convert to Christianity.
While Merkel suggests that refugee children will learn German in kindergarten, Vijeta Uniyal (who also writes for Legal Insurrection) warns at the Gatestone Institute website that several German states are instituting Islamic studies in public schools and that this could undermine any hope of assimilation. Uniyal writes:
Several German states including Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia have introduced Islamic Studies in their public schools. The state of Hesse has become the first in Germany to offer Islamic education in public schools, with religious instruction starting as early as the first grade.Giving young children religious and moral instruction might sound like a good idea, if not for the content of the newly written Islamic curriculum and the influence of Islamist elements over the recruitment of teachers.The writing of textbooks is being overseen by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB). In an agreement reached between the State of Hesse and DITIB, the organization will play a key role in setting the curriculum, selecting the teachers and monitoring the Islamic religious instruction. The organization is apparently assuming a similar role in several other key German states.DITIB is the largest Muslim organization in Germany and controls several prominent mosques. The group depends heavily on the Turkish government for its funding, and maintains close ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist party, the AKP.. . . . By legitimizing extremist groups such as DITIB as the sole legitimate representatives of Islam within German Muslim society, the German government has marginalized genuine voices of reform and dissent within its Muslim population.These courageous dissident Muslim men and women are left to face threats and intimidation on their own, while the government is busy appeasing the self-proclaimed leaders of the faith.
It will be interesting to see how this battle for the hearts and minds of refugee and immigrant children plays out.
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