Merkel to security summit: Islam is not the source of terror

Speaking in her New Year’s address delivered less than two weeks after a Tunisian suspect rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, Merkel acknowledged it was “bitter and sickening” that the attack and others in July were carried out by asylum seekers.

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF AND AGENCIES February 18, 2017, 

German chancellor tells Munich conference that Muslim clergy must fight back against ‘false’ reading of their religion

 

The Islamic faith is not the cause of terrorism, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday, and urged members of the Muslim clergy to fight back against a “false” interpretation of the religion that permits acts of violence to be carried out in its name.

Arguing for Muslim states to cooperate with the rest of the world to stamp out terror, the chancellor told an international security conference in Munich that this is the only way to persuade non-Muslims that the religion is one of peace.

“I think, those countries, first and foremost have to give a contribution. Because only in this way we would be able to convince people that it is not Islam that is the source of terrorism. But a falsely understood Islam,” Merkel said, according to Al Jazeera.

“I expect from religious authorities of Islam to find strong language in order to delimitate peaceful Islam from terrorism committed in the name of Islam. We as non-Muslims cannot do this, it should be done by Islamic clergy and authorities,” she said.

Merkel previously denounced “Islamist terrorism” as the greatest challenge facing Germany, and called on her fellow citizens to hold firm to democratic values in the face of jihadist terror.

Speaking in her New Year’s address delivered less than two WGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel poses for a photograph after the recording of her annual New Year’s speech at the Chancellery in Berlin on December 30, 2016 (AFP photo/POOL/ Markus Schreiber)eeks after a Tunisian suspect rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people, Merkel acknowledged it was “bitter and sickening” that the attack and others in July were carried out by asylum seekers.

Nevertheless, she defended her decision in September 2015 to let in tens of thousands fleeing war from mostly Arab and Muslim nations.

“When we look at the images of bombed out Aleppo in Syria, we have to say once again how important and right it was for us to have helped those who needed our protection to find their way here and to integrate,” she said.

Merkel said it was through such values of humanity and openness that Germany should face down those who espouse hate.

  

The day after a truck ran into a crowded Christmas market a police officer lights a candle nearby, in Berlin, Germany, December 20, 2016. (AP/Matthias Schrader)

“As we go on with our lives and work, we tell the terrorists: You are murderers full of hate, but you will not determine how we live and want to live. We are free, compassionate and open,” she said.

Merkel has been under fire over her liberal refugee policy, as the arrival of around a million people over the past two years has deeply polarized society.

The German leader promised that the government would “swiftly put in place and implement any necessary political or legal changes” to close down any security gaps, after the Berlin truck attack exposed serious failures.

But she cautioned against placing certain groups of people under a blanket of suspicion.

Without naming populists, Merkel hit out at those who she said present a “distorted” picture of democracy.

But she said the system is “strong, it allows everyone to act, participate.

“It accepts, no, it demands contradictions and criticisms.

“Criticism that peacefully and respects individuals, that seek solutions and compromises and does not exclude entire groups,” she said, urging politicians not to forget these guiding principles in the run-up to elections in 2017.