Tag archives: Germany

Germany to Step Up Efforts to Combat Anti-Semitism
January 21, 2018 By Faith Matters

Germany to Step Up Efforts to Combat Anti-Semitism

Germany’s lower house of parliament on Thursday voted to step up efforts to combat anti-Semitism and called for the creation of a new government post to oversee the issue, backed by an independent panel of experts. The proposal was jointly introduced and backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), the pro-business […]

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Stolen Nazi gate returns to concentration camp
February 23, 2017 By Faith Matters

Stolen Nazi gate returns to concentration camp

A stolen WWII gate bearing the infamous Nazi slogan. Returning after two years to its home in Dachau, a former concentration camp in Germany. It disappeared overnight in 2014 and only resurfaced in Norway in December after police followed an anonymous tip off. The words “work sets you free” cast into this Iron Gate would […]

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Thoughts on the Anniversary of Kristallnacht 2016
November 9, 2016 By Faith Matters

Thoughts on the Anniversary of Kristallnacht 2016

It’s seventy-eight years since the Night of Broken Glass, when Goebbels unleashed upon the Jews of Germany the full of violence of Nazi hate. Though he described the subsequent horrors as the unpremeditated and spontaneous expression of the Kochende Volkseele, the boiling public mood, the smashing, burning and killing were co-ordinated across Germany and beyond. […]

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Tensions rise in Germany’s Turkish diaspora, mirroring splits in Turkey
September 3, 2016 By Faith Matters

Tensions rise in Germany’s Turkish diaspora, mirroring splits in Turkey

Ercan Karakoyun has long played a prominent role in Berlin’s Turkish community, promoting education and dialogue among Muslims and Germans of other faiths. Now, however, whenever he can, Karakoyun avoids the bustling streets where many Turks live in the German capital. He says he has received six death threats via email and Facebook that are being […]

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Merkel under fire after call for Turks in Germany to show ‘loyalty’
August 25, 2016 By Faith Matters

Merkel under fire after call for Turks in Germany to show ‘loyalty’

German politicians on Wednesday criticised Chancellor Angela Merkel for saying that people with a Turkish background who live in Germany should show “loyalty to our country”, calling her comment unnecessarily divisive at a particularly difficult time. Adding to mounting strains on relations between Germany and Turkey, a major partner in regional attempts to stem mass […]

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Europeans turn to weapons in growing numbers after attacks
August 23, 2016 By Faith Matters

Europeans turn to weapons in growing numbers after attacks

Europeans in a number of countries are seeking to arm themselves with guns and self-defence devices in growing numbers following a series of attacks by militants and the mentally ill. Some weapons sellers also link their increased business to the arrival of huge numbers of migrants in Europe, although a German police report stated that […]

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Turkey asks Germany for help with Gulen crackdown
August 20, 2016 By Faith Matters

Turkey asks Germany for help with Gulen crackdown

Turkey’s government has sent German authorities requests for 40 searches and three extraditions linked to supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S-based Muslim cleric it blames for last month’s attempted coup, magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses a network of schools, charities and businesses led by Gulen, and built up in […]

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Germany’s Nazi hunter tracks down 8 concentration camp workers
August 10, 2016 By Faith Matters

Germany’s Nazi hunter tracks down 8 concentration camp workers

Germany’s top Nazi hunter has identified four men and four women suspected of serving as guards, secretaries and telephone operators at a concentration camp near Gdansk, and prosecutors will examine if they can be charged as accomplices to murder. Jens Rommel, the head of Germany’s Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg, […]

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At Ramadan, migrants in Europe dream of family and comfort food
June 8, 2016 By Faith Matters

At Ramadan, migrants in Europe dream of family and comfort food

As Ramadan began in Germany on Monday, Syrian asylum seeker Khairallah Swaid said he would pray for a reunion with his wife, who is stranded at a camp in Greece, and crave his mother’s makloubeh, a meat and rice dish served during the fasting month. The Muslim holy month that began this year on June […]

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German politician receives death threats over Armenian genocide resolution
June 6, 2016 By Faith Matters

German politician receives death threats over Armenian genocide resolution

A leader of Germany’s opposition Greens who has Turkish roots has received death threats after he pushed for a resolution approved last week by the German parliament that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a genocide. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Germany in protest against the resolution. Ankara accepts that large […]

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