German
Justice Minister Heiko Maas has warned against blaming the religion of Islam
for the deadly Charlie Hebdo attack. He criticized rightist German groups for
trying to use the attack for their own purposes.
Deutsche Welle, 8 Jan 2015
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas on Thursday condemned a deadly attack on a French satirical magazine as an "attack on freedom of expression, the heart of our democracy," but warned against equating Islam with terrorism.
Pegida demonstrators holding sign saying Saxony stays German and a German flag. Photo: Peter Endig/dpa |
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas on Thursday condemned a deadly attack on a French satirical magazine as an "attack on freedom of expression, the heart of our democracy," but warned against equating Islam with terrorism.
"This
was an attack against Islam. The vast majority of Muslims in German consider it
a betrayal of their beliefs and they are saying so loudly and publicly,"
Maas told a news conference in the German capital, Berlin.
"The
mainstream here in Germany has to understand that these were extremists who
have nothing to do with Islam," Maas went on.
"We
will respond to the terrorist threat resolutely, but calmly and with
moderation," he added.
'No war of
cultures'
Maas also
warned against allowing a "war of cultures" to arise, criticizing
right-wing groups in Germany for seeking to capitalize on the attack, in which
suspected Islamist gunmen killed 12 people in a raid on the offices of French
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Maas'
remarks came after a regional leader of the right-wing party Alternative for
Germany (AfD), Alexander Gauland, said the Paris attack confirmed that the
"anti-Islamization" movement Pegida, which has held weekly
demonstrations in various German cities for the past couple of months, was
right in wanting to halt immigration.
Pegida, an
acronym standing for "Patriotic Europeans Agaist the Islamization of the
West," is expected to hold up the Charlie Hebdo attack as an example of the dangers posed by "Islamization" at its next planned rally in the
eastern German city of Dresden on Monday.
Germany,
which has a population of some 81 million, has an estimated four million people
of Muslim background, not all of them active believers.
tj/pfd (AFP, dpa)
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