Fueling the intensification of German nationalism is the rise of Islam. Germans are growing fed up with Muslims. This development promises to have serious repercussions. In fact, Germany and Islam are traveling a path that can only end in an unparalleled clash of civilizations.
A survey performed in Germany earlier this year substantiates this argument. Commissioned by Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and performed by researchers from the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research, the study disclosed an alarming trend. Deutsche Welle reported, “Experts fear new conflicts after a study published this week showed most Germans doubt the Western and Islamic worlds can peacefully coexist. Mistrust of the 3 million Muslims living in Germany appears to be growing” (May 20, emphasis mine throughout).
Of the 1,076 Germans interviewed in early May, 83 percent associated Islam with “fanaticism.” Over 71 percent believed Islam to be “intolerant”; 62 percent saw Islam as “backward”; 60 percent saw it as “undemocratic” (Jerusalem Post, May 24). Only 8 percent of respondents characterized Islam as peaceful.
Perhaps most striking: 61 percent of Germans said they believe a “clash of cultures” already exists; 65 percent said they counted on such conflicts to worsen in the future. These results are astonishing: According to this survey, most Germans expect a future clash with Islam!
Should the government ban the building of Islamic mosques in Germany as long as the building of churches in some Islamic states remains forbidden? Fifty-six percent of Germans say yes. Survey results even indicated that there is growing support for ending Germany’s constitutional right of freedom of religion with regard to Islam. Many Germans are so disgusted with the Islamic onslaught, they are prepared to alter their constitution in order to curb Muslim ambition!
Germans are mulling over increasingly extreme measures to solve the Islamic crisis in their midst. Four out of 10 Germans say “strict limits should be imposed on the practice of Islam in Germany to protect the country” (Expatica, May 18).
Although intolerance of Muslims in Germany has steadily risen since the 9/11 attacks in America, it has grown much stronger recently amid a torrent of high-profile stories in the German press. “Concerns over an ‘honor killing’ in Berlin, demands that schoolgirls be permitted to wear burkas, a surge in schoolyard violence involving Muslim immigrants, and the failure of Germany’s 3 million Muslim immigrants to assimilate have deepened a ‘crisis of cultures’” (Jerusalem Post, op. cit.).
As these events unfold, leading politicians are suggesting bold initiatives to solve the problem. A set of proposed tests mandatory for incoming immigrants plainly aims at Muslims: The test put forward by one German state asks about a person’s views on forced marriage, homosexuality and women’s rights; a 100-question test in another state asks whether “the applicant believes in Israel’s right to exist and whether a woman should be allowed in public without the accompaniment of a male relative” (Deutsche Welle, March 16).
That a contingent of Germany’s population is intolerant of Islam is not startling; sectors of the population in many nations espouse such sentiment. What is startling is that the results of the Allensbach survey suggest that anti-Islamic sentiment isn’t confined to a narrow segment of German society. The majority of the German people believe a clash of civilizations is already underway.
This trend will only intensify; European-Islamic hostility is bound to escalate in the coming months and years. The entire Continent is being primed for conflict.