Why the German Media are Courting the Anti-Islam Movement
If discussions on the cultural pages of German newspapers in spring 2010 were representative of German opinion, then we must assume that around half the German population comprehend Islam as a threat. Does the negative attitude towards Islam testify to vigilance or to prejudice? Stefan Weidner looks into the matter The crucial formulation in the anti-Islamic doctrine is extremely simplistic: Islam was never good, is not good, and cannot be good, writes Stefan Weidner
No matter how coarse and emotional these debates may have been, a glance across Germany s frontiers shows that things could have been much worse. In Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Switzerland the anti-Islamic mood is not only to be felt in newspaper feature supplements, blogs and talk shows; it also influences party politics, election results, and special legislation on Islam. In Germany the political fallout of this debate is astoni