A14
EZ SU
KLMNO THE WORLD
Official’s views on Muslim immigration divide Germany Central bank executive agrees to resign amid uproar, but his belief that the country has been ‘dumbed down’ resonates with some
BY ANTHONY FAIOLA IN BERLIN
T
he most talked-about man in Germany is a 65-year-old economist whose hot new book and sudden ground-
swell of popular support have the media dubbing him a folk hero. But that is not the only thing they are calling Thilo Sarrazin these days. Some are also calling him dan-
gerous. Sarrazin, a boardmember of the German central bank until he resigned under pressureThurs- day, has divided the nation by pos- tulatingthetheorythatGermanyis being “dumbed down” by Muslim immigrants and their children. Wielding statistics and scientific arguments both in his book and in public comments, he delves into territory largely taboo here since theHolocaust,suggestingthat“he- reditary factors” are at least partly toblame.TurksandKurdishimmi- grants, he asserts, are genetically predisposed to lower intelligence than Germans and other ethnic groups, including Jews. His statements have shocked
many in Germany, not only be- cause of a national sensitivity to anythingremotelysmackingofge- netic superiority claims in the post-World War II era. What has alsoshockedmany is that somany Germanshave ralliedtohis sideas the central bank and his political party have sought to oust himfor hispronouncements. On Thursday, the Central Bank
announced he had finally agreed to tender his resignation, a week after outraged officials called for it, thus avoiding a showdownwith Germany’s president who was set todecide onSarrazin’s fate. Muslims who are among his
critics are calling Sarrazin’s surg- ing popularity here part of a wave of IslamophobiaintheWest, citing themove to ban burqas in France and minarets in Switzerland, the opposition to the construction of an Islamic center near New York City’s Ground Zero, and a Florida preacher’s plans (nowcanceled) to stage a burning of Islamic holy books later this week. Others say his emergence in Germany, and growing popularity, is fundamen- tally evenmoredisturbing. ThoughmostofSarrazin’sback-
ers are publicly distancing them- selvesfromhisgeneticarguments, they are laudinghimas a straight-
talkerwilling to address the prob- lem of Muslim immigrants, who often eschew German language and culture. By throwing political correctness to the wind, they say, he has dared to speak the truth about higher immigrant unem- ployment, birthrates and welfare rates. Among Germany’s population
of 82million, about 5 percent are Muslims,most ofTurkishdescent. A poll published in the national magazineFocus thisweekshowed 31 percent of respondents agree- ing that Germany is “becoming dumber” because of immigrants, with 62 percent calling Sarrazin’s comments “justified” and 52 per- cent saying he shouldn’t be thrown out of his Social Demo- craticPartybecauseof them.Since party chiefs began a process to evict him last week, their head- quarters in Berlin has been inun- dated with thousands of e-mails supporting Sarrazin. High-profile politicians, including Chancellor AngelaMerkel, have strongly con- demnedhim.But others areprais- ing him for bringing concerns about immigration from Muslim countries to the forefront of the nationaldialogue. Sarrazin now has more than
21,000friendsonFacebookandan online fan club. Less than two weeks after its release, his book, “GermanyDoesAwayWith Itself,” is in its seventh printing, topping bestseller lists with more than 300,000 copies shipped so far and many bookstores inGermany still soldout. German Jewish groups are
among Sarrazin’s staunchest crit- ics, callinghimadangerous racist. Though Sarrazin has spoken posi- tively of Jews, saying they have “highIQs,”hecourtedcontroversy afterdeclaringinanAug.29inter- view that “all Jews share a certain gene.” In fact, observers here say that theofficialoutcryagainstSar- razin — including the move to expel him from the board of the central bank — would have been far more muted had he simply stuck to his generalizations about Muslims. But by generalizing about Jew-
ish genetics at all, Sarrazin also “crossed a red line,” said Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the CentralCouncil of Jews inGerma- ny.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable
with the history here that such a large amount of people follow what he says,” Kramer said. “The
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
FABRIZIO BENSCH/REUTERS Protesters in Potsdam,Germany, wave leaflets with caricatures of Thilo Sarrazin, calling him racist for his views onMuslim immigrants.
lesson of theHolocaust is not just about Jews,but thathumandigni- tyis indivisible.Yetnow, theyreact if there is a genetic comment about Jews,butnot if it’sabout the Roma or the Turks.We obviously stillhave somehomework todo.” Sarrazin’s critique of Muslim
immigrants has, without ques- tion, touched a national nerve. In thebars, taxisandofficesofBerlin, it is the hottest topic of conserva- tion, with his supporters feeling liberatedby Sarrazin’swillingness to throw caution to the wind and speak openly about their con- cerns.More than anything, he has tapped into German frustrations about the tendency of Muslim Turks — who began large-scale immigration in the 1960s to work inGermanfactories—tolive clan- nishlives, jealouslyguardingtheir language andreligious traditions. The bookish, mustached Sar-
razin—who declined a request to comment—is no stranger to con- troversy. While a member of the Berlin state senate, he famously said civil servants had a physical odor and wrote a diet for welfare recipients who claimed they couldn’t live on theirmeager state assistance checks. But in the past
saying, but Germany does have problems with immigration and integrationandpoliticiansarenot willing to talk about it.” In the past, Turkish intellectu-
als have themselves sharply criti- cized the community’s lack of as- similation, calling for the children of immigrants to integrate more fully into Germany society. But if anything, the book appears to be polarizing Germany, with the Turkishcommunity feeling defen- sive andostracized. In Kreuzberg, a partly Turkish
MARCUS BRANDT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES Sarrazin has made other controversial remarks in the past.
year, he has homed in on the issue of Turkish and other Muslim im- migrants. In his book, Sarrazin asserts
thatGermanyisgettingdumber in part because of “congenital dis- abilities” from inbreeding by Turks and Kurds. “But the subject is usually hushed up,” Sarrazin writes. “Perish the thought that genetic factors could be partially responsible for the failure of parts of the Turkish populations in the German school system.” He goes on to blame crime and bloated
welfare roles on Turks, using sta- tistics that, according to German media articles, are often outdated andsometimes justplainwrong. Many, like Carl Moser, a 26-
year-old business school student in Bavaria who launched a Face- book fan site for Sarrazin, say he went too far with some of his comments.But “I support himbe- cause he dares to speak out on facts that have come from real dataandwon’tbowdowntopoliti- cal correctness,”Moser said. “I am not supportive of everything he is
neighborhood of Berlin dotted with kebab houses and women in veils, community leader Kenan Kolat said Sarrazin and his popu- larity had “damaged” the faith of Germany’s Turks in their adopted nation. “Sarrazin doesn’t see a social
problem, but an ethnic problem, that we are genetically inferior,” said Kolat, chairman of the Turk- ish Federation in Germany. “And yet, German people are support- ing him. How do you think the Turkishcommunity feels?”
faiolaa@washpost.com
Special correspondent JabeenBhatti contributed to this report.
Release of Chinese activist brings security crackdown to village BYWILLIAMWAN
shanghai — Controversy has returned to the village of Dong- shigu, and with it, a security crackdown. The source of both: the release of Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer who drew worldwide attention to his rural neighbors’ stories of forced sterilizations and late-termabor- tions by local authorities. After a two-hour trial, Chen
had spent the past four years and three months imprisoned in nearby Linyi city in Shandong province. His five fellow lawyers were prevented from attending the trial, either by being beaten
up or detained the night before. So the mood in the vil-
lage was tense on Thurs- day as Chen was released and returned home. Doz- ens of plainclothes police officers, who arrived the day before, stood watch outside his house and at the entrances to the vil- lage, residents said. Chen’s wife, who had talked to foreign report- ers Wednesday night, suddenly could no longer be reached. The family’s telephone and cellphone service had been cut, relatives explained. “The plainclothes police brought him early this morning
Chen Guangcheng
at 6 o’clock. Everyone saw it,” said one of Chen’s neighbors, who did notwant her name used for fear of repri- sals from the police camping out in the village. Villagers said they
are alternately thank- ful for Chen’s work
and fearful of being associated with him. Reporters from the Associated Press who tried to enter the village Thursday said men in plainclothes came run- ning, scuffled with the reporters and pursued them at high speed as they left the area. Local authorities did not re-
turn calls. Chen emerged in 2005 as an
improbable but charismatic leader against local authorities. A peasant who was blind from infancy, he had traveled to Bei- jing a decade earlier to complain about his family’s taxes. He re- turned with a refund and admis- sion to a university to study acupuncture – one of the few professions in China available to the blind. While in college, how- ever, he audited law classes and learned enough to take action when neighbors began telling him stories of abuse by local officials carrying out China’s population-control policies. In 2005, a Washington Post
DIGEST RUSSIA
Suicide bomber kills 16 in North Caucasus A central market in southern
Russia was hit Thursday by a suicide car bomber, who killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 130 in one of theNorth Caucasus region’s worst attacks in years, officials said. The bomber detonated his ex-
plosives as he drove by the main entrance to the busy market in Vladikavkaz, capital of North Os- setia province, the Emergency SituationsMinistry said. Of the 133 people wounded, 98
were hospitalized, many in grave condition, said Alexander Pog- orely of the ministry. Television images showed a
shrapnel-littered square in front of the market, with bloodstains on the pavement and rows of vehicles scarred by the blast. Russia’s North Caucasus has
been gripped by violence stem- ming from two separatist wars in Chechnya and fueled by endemic poverty, rampant official corrup- tion and police abuses. —Associated Press
SOMALIA
Insurgents attack capital’s airport A suicide car bomber struck at
the gate to Mogadishu’s airport Thursday, and bombers in a sec- ond vehicle rushed toward the terminal before exploding them- selves short of their goal, officials said. As many as 14 people were killed, including five attackers. The assault was the latest in a
surge of attacks by Islamist insur- gents, who last month declared a new, stepped-up effort to oust the country’s weak government. The barrage took place about
40 minutes after Somalia’s presi- dent flewout of the country. The weak Somali government
and the 7,000-member African Union force that protects it gave slightly differing accounts of the attack, though they agreed on the broad outlines.
—Associated Press SPAIN
Economic slowdown forces labor reforms Spain gave final approval
REUTERS
Aman stands next to his burned truck after a forest fire in the village of Nikolayevka inRussia’s Altai region.Astate of emergency was imposed in a bid to contain the spread of fires from Kazakhstan.
Thursday to labor market re- forms designed to shake up a listless economy and help slash a bloated deficit that has prompted European-wide worries of anoth- er Greek-style debt crisis. But it was hardly a day for the government to cry victory, as
most parties voted against the changes and lambasted Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Za- patero,whoseapproval rating has sunk to less than 30 percent. Union leaders, who are gener-
ally close allies of the Socialist government, said a general strike
planned for Sept. 29 is now more justified than ever. One key thrust of the reforms
as Spain battles a 20 percent jobless rate and struggles to crawl out of recession is to make em- ployers less wary of hiring by making it cheaper and easier for them to lay people off. Spain has been a key focus of
Europe’s debt crisis. It ran a defi- cit equal to 11.2 percent of gross domestic product last year, far above the European Union limit of 3 percent. Troubled govern- ment finances mean Spain, along with Portugal and Greece, is hav- ing to pay higher interest rates to borrow.
—Associated Press
Cellphone hacking probe in Brit- ain: British legislators authorized a sweeping inquiryThursday into illicit snooping on politicians and celebrities by tabloids, as one lawmaker called formediatycoon Rupert Murdoch to testify over allegations that one of his papers illegally hacked into cellphones. Quake hits damaged region in Chile: A magnitude-6.1 earth- quake has hit the same part of Chile that suffered a catastrophic quake in February. Thursday’s
temblor caused alarm but no re- ported damage or injuries. It struck the regions of Maule, Bio- Bio and Araucani — just where the earlier magnitude-8.8 quake caused the most damage. Guerrillas renew attacks in Co- lombia: Forty-five Colombian po- lice officers, soldiersandguerrilla fighters have been killed in the past week as leftist rebels launched attacks meant to show they are still a threat after an eight-year U.S.-backed security push. President Juan Manuel Santos took office last month, promising to keep up pressure on the drug-running insurgents. SistineChapelthreatenedby pol- lution: The Vatican Museums chief has warned that dust and polluting agents brought into the Sistine Chapel by thousands of tourists every day could one day endanger the chapel’s master- pieces by Michelangelo. Vatican Museums chief Antonio Paolucci told the newspaper La Repubbli- ca that to preserveMichelangelo’s “Last Judgment” and the other treasures, new tools to control temperature and humidity must be studied and implemented. —From news services
reporter followed Chen as he prepared for a class-action law- suit by recording several villag- ers’ stories of strong-arm en- forcement of China’s one-child policy. Many described government
raids on their homes and being forced to undergo sterilization. Women who were illegally preg- nant with a third or fourth child said family members were jailed and beaten until the women came out of hiding and agreed to a late-termabortion. Senior officials in China’s cen-
tral government at the time con- firmed hearing complaints about abuses in Linyi that, if true, they considered illegal.
But months later, Chen was
arrested on charges of destruc- tion of property and causing others to disrupt traffic. It is unclearwhether Chenwill
continue the work he began before his imprisonment. Xu Zhiyong, a lawyer who was sup- posed to defend Chen at his 2006 trial but was detained by police, said: “He did so much good for the villagers. I hope he will be able to adhere to those original principles and beliefs he had.”
wanw@washpost.com
Staff researchers Liu Liu and Zhang Jie in Beijing contributed to this report.
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