Elections in Europe - watch what you say. Really.

Hesse Governor, Roland Koch. Embedded from Bild.de

All the talk of the US media, and much of the world's media, is on the US Presidential primary race. But if you think politicians in the US have to be careful what they say, you haven't seen the European system, where your enemies can go beyond criticism - sometimes they can even charge you with hate speech, since the 1st Amendment doesn't exist.

And it's election season in Germany now too. The local state elections are scheduled for 27 January (Germany is divided into 16 states, or "Länder" - we live in Hesse, which is in the Mid-West), which will decide the state parliaments and governors. Right now, the conservative CDU (Christian Democrats) are in the lead, with the SPD (socialists) trailing close behind, and several other other smaller parties follow. For the first time, there's even a "Pirate" party on the ballot, although it's a little unclear to me just what they stand for.

In any case, before you find this civics lesson rather boring, I'll get to the point. The German media have reported that there has been some vicious and racist rhetoric going on in the campaign, but I am having a hard time finding it. Here is Der Spiegel's spin on this issue:

CRITIQUE AGAINST RACIST CAMPAIGN
German Immigrants Have Had Enough

After weeks of enduring a xenophobic onslaught from Roland Koch, the governor of Hesse, Germany's immigrants are fed up. The conservatives' rhetoric, an open letter says, is feeding prejudice and fomenting a social split.

It was bound to happen. After weeks of being portrayed by Hesse Governor Roland Koch as being little better than uncivilized savages, Germany's immigrants on Thursday struck back.

In an open letter addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel and to Koch -- both of the conservative Christian Democrats -- an association representing some 100 immigrant groups in Germany expressed its frustration at the populist tones coming from Koch, as he campaigns for re-election in a Jan. 27 state vote [emphasis mine].

So what was this "xenophobic onslaught"?

His main offense is saying:

Wir haben zu viele kriminelle junge Ausländer ("We have too many young criminal foreigners")

And:

"it must be clear that the slaughtering (of animals) in the kitchen runs counter to our principles"... "People who live in Germany must behave properly and refrain from using their fists. That's how one behaves in a civilized country."

And this is what Spiegel calls a "racist campaign"?

If you think his remarks were racist, then a little background of a well-publicized incident that sparked these comments is in order:

Koch was responding to the brutal assault on a 76-year-old German man by two young men, one Greek and one Turkish, in Munich on December 20. The pensioner had asked them to stop smoking on a subway train, where smoking is prohibited.

They called him a "Shit German" and spat at him, then followed him out onto the platform and beat him up, kicking him in the head. He was taken to hospital with a fractured skull and internal bleeding in his brain but is now recovering. A number of people witnessed the attack but did not intervene.

The incident was filmed on security cameras and led to a nationwide outcry during Christmas, with calls for tougher sentencing for young offenders and the expulsion of foreign criminals. The 17-year-old Greek man and the 20-year-old Turk, who both live in Munich, have since been arrested and both have a long list of prior offences.

But apparently, stating the obvious, that foreigners do not have an unconditional right to remain in Germany, especially if they commit crimes, is just too much for people like Mehmet Tanriverdi, president of BAGIV, an immigrants rights group:

"People need scapegoats,"... "Using minorities as scapegoats is nothing new. But really, Koch is running a witch hunt."

So, deporting convicted criminals is making a "scapegoat" of them?

What's amazing is not the harshness of Koch's remarks but that it's taken this long to hear politicians frankly speaking about this problem. In the United States, the debate over immigration is pretty heated as well, but Europe's problems are far, far worse. In a land that is roughly equal to the US state of Montana, Germany has to squeeze in over 82 million people, and still counting (by contrast, Montana only has about 1 million people). Overall, Germany's population density is 232 people per square km, compared to 31 for the United States. So the question is, why has immigration only become a major campaign issue in the last few years?

Susanne Winter

There was a very similar case in Austria this week, which is also in an election cycle. Susanne Winter, a Freedom Party candidate in local elections in Graz in south-eastern Austria, made remarks comparing the prophet Mohammed to a pedophile:

Susanne Winter, a candidate for the Freedom Party in local elections in Graz in south-eastern Austria, said on Sunday that Mohammed's marriage to a 6-year-old girl would make the prophet a 'paedophile in today's system.'

Speaking at a rally, Winter demanded that Islam should be 'thrown back where it came from, beyond the Mediterranean Sea.'

Winter later justified her attacks. 'There is widespread child abuse by Muslim men,' she was quoted as saying by the newspaper Oesterreich.

'Why can't I say this? That has nothing to do with hate speech. We want neither Austrian nor foreign paedophiles. I did not want to incite hatred, or offend a religious community,' she said.

Austria's authorities were investigating whether Winter's remarks constituted incitement to hatred, a spokesman from the prosecutor's office said. If found guilty, Winter could face up to two years in prison.

Politicians from all other factions sharply denounced Winter's remarks and called for her resignation.

I guess pedophiles from all over were quite insulted...

Problem is, what she said is true. Several of the Hadiths (the Islamic writings ater the Koran) report it. For example, from the Sahih Bukhari Hadith:

Bukhari vol. 7, #88:"Narrated Urwa: "The prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).""

In plain English, Mohammed was 52 and had sex with a 9 year old girl. By today's standards, that makes him a pedophile, and by my standards that makes his conduct absolutely wrong. Some Muslim scholars question the accuracy of certain Hadiths, but the problem is that this same information was reported not once, but at least three times in various passages.

But in the EU, truth is no defense, even against charges of "hate speech".

Also: For an example of this same problem in the UK, see this post from last November.




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