German interior minister says Islam must accept female equality
http://www.expatica .com/de/articles /news/German- interior- minister- says-Islam
-must-accept- female-equality- .html
German interior minister says Islam must accept female equality 13/05/2008
00:00
Hat tip-OSINT
Interior minister Wolfgang Schaeubel has told a newspaper that the
emancipation of Islamic women is key to social cohesion in Germany
Berlin — The German interior minister said Tuesday that the emancipation of
women within Germany’s Islamic communities was the key to continued social
integration.
In an interview with the Berliner Tagespiegel newspaper Wolfgang Schaeubler
said, “That women have the same rights is one of the things which Muslims
must accept.”
” Female empowerment is one of the great hopes for the development of a
modern democratic society.”
The minister’s Christian Democratic Union party (CSU) places great emphasis
on what it sees as family-based western European values, including the
integration of Islam in an open and moderate form.
Islam is Germany’s largest minority religion. Since the 1960s the country
has experienced large scale immigration from predominantly Islamic Turkey
and the avoidance of segregation is a key aim for both sides of Germany’s
ruling grand coalition.
In the same interview Schaeubler said that German children should be
speaking German at home. At present many children from immigrant backgrounds
do not encounter the national language until they start to attend
kindergarten.
His comments are fuel for the ongoing debate about the status of Islam in
the country. The German government is a supporter of Turkish entry to the
European Union but many hardliners argue that an Islamic country has no
place in Europe.
Dominic Hinde
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