3/28/04 New US Immigration Law

3/27/06 Maximum cities(by Rana Dasgupta in _New Statesman_)."London, Paris, and New York are dying--the 21st century belongs to the fertile chaos on the third-world metropolis."

3/21/06 Yuri Andrukhovych's acceptance speech "Europe-my neurosis" for this year's Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding ruffled feathers in Germany.

3/18/06 Berliner Zeitung. Do we want immigrants or not? The questionnaire that the state of Hesse has proposed will even turn a dog away from Germany. Arno Widmann finds the questions simply absurd. "Can Germans to-be answer question 88 (Explain the meaning of the freedom of opinion and freedom of the press) the way Paul Sethe (former publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung) did, namely the freedom of 200 rich people to spread their opinion, or do they have to express it more politically correctly in order to be let into the country of Germans? The trick of the democratic constitution of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland lies in the fact that traditions, claims and convictions can be questioned by any citizen. This questionnaire assumes that there is only one correct (and decisive) answer to each question or at least no more answers than the bureaucrat knows. That is the authoritarian, undemocratic and at the same time absurd aspect of this undertaking." See more about the test.

3/16/06- NYT A candid Dutch film may be too Scary for Immigrants.

3/10/06- Spain - El País. "The lifting of entry barriers for Easterners seeking to work in Spain is a fair and intelligent measure, because it allows us to strengthen our relations with
new members, and especially with Poland, whose size and population are similar to Spain's," the daily argues in its editorial. (in Spanish)

3/10/06 EU steps back, Turkey allows Native Tongue Broadcast.European Union countries prefer the limitation of minority language broadcasts

3/6/06- More on Muslims, Cartoons, and Freedom of Expression. Editorial by Zeki Sariktoprak.

3/6/06-The Nation.What do American cartoon artists make of the worldwide protests ignited by the Muhammad cartoons published by the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten? The Nation's Sam Graham-Felsen posed a few questions by phone to two whose work we hold in great esteem: Joe Sacco, a Maltese-American, the author of Palestine and War's End, and Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060306/interview

/2/06-Spain - La Vanguardia. Niall Ferguson, a British-born professor who teaches history at Harvard University, demolishes the theory of the clash of civilisations. "In my book 'Colossus', I defend the idea that the conflicts in the Middle East have nothing to do with a clash of civilisations, but rather stem from the 'civilisation of clashes' we see in the Arab world, the propensity of its political culture to resolve conflicts through violence instead of negotiation. And the same theory applies, even more forcefully, to sub-Saharan Africa. ... As a result, it is highly likely that in the future what we will see are local wars, especially ethnic conflicts in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, as opposed to a global clash of value systems. ... In summary, we are really speaking about a 'failure of civilisations' and not a clash between them." (Article in Spanish).

Rejecting the Bad: A Muslim Manifesto"Who are the moderate Muslims, and why do they not speak up?" After being asked theis question over and over again since 9/11, particularly after the Danish cartoon crisis, Muslim intellectuals Akyol and Baran have proposed this Muslim Manifesto.http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,404005,00.html

Goodbye Ostalgia! A New Willingness to Criticize East Germany
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,403978,00.html

Wanted: Ethnic Minority Cops in Germany. Less than 2 percent of its ethnic minorities are estimated to work in the public service sector, despite making up 13 % of Berlin's 3-million population. (Article in English)

2/24/06 Muhammad cartoons A survey of the European press

Viennese philosopher Isolde Charim has given up on the idea of a dialogue between cultures while Wole Soyinka suggests that such a dialogue can only succeed on a new footing. German sociologist Necla Kelek warns against underestimating the forced collectivity of Islamic culture.http://www.signandsight.com/intodaysfeuilletons/628.html

2/23/06"Valley of the Wolves" - a hate film?
The feuilletons continue to debate the unhappy fate of the Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves" in Germany (more here).
As the cinema chain CinemaxX pulls the film from its program and CDU politicians, who presumably have not seen the film, claim that it incites hatred, Fitz Göttler writes in the Suddeutsche Zeitung, "The more heated the discussion over the film gets, the more it tends toward absurdity (...). The danger of the hate-film thing is the hooliganisation of the audience that it implies. Do we really think that 'Valley of the Wolves' is going to draw an audience of Turkish youth in leather jackets with switchblades in their jeans pockets who, after being turned on by the film, are going to go out onto the streets and wreak havoc? An aggressive audience that has never learned to distinguish between reality and fiction? In truth, it's a rather bourgeois audience that's going to see the film and they're quite enjoying the fact that at the end, a Turkish hero actually prevails."
Die Zeit offers both pro and contra positions. Christoph Siemes criticises the "appetite for fear" being conjured up by colleagues who suggest a repression of locals by migrants. He calls for moderation. "Should the Bundesrepublik, after it has finally brought itself to accept that it is a country of immigration, now castrate its immigrants to ensure they don't take the upper hand?" Jörg Lau fears, on the other hand, that the German Turks who applaud at the end of the nationalist movie will internally distance themselves from the West. Susanne Güsten suggests that part of the film's success is to be explained with its evocation of the glorious Ottoman empire.

Der Tagesspiegel, 23.02.2006
Author Peter Schneider writes on Islam, the West and the promise of freedom: "With over 20 million Muslim migrants, Europe has brought the conflict with Islam onto its home turf. And now it is challenged to defend its values and principles both at home and abroad. The inner lines of conflict which we are seeing in current discussions on integration, forced marriage, the 'Muslim Test' (more here) and the cartoon conflict display three broad themes: equality and sexual self-determination of women and homosexuals; freedom of opinion and the press; and the rights of the secular vis-à-vis the sacral world. In a nutshell, the conflict puts in question some of the major achievements of the Enlightenment, the foundation of secular Western societies. The West can only negotiate these questions at the risk of repudiating its soul." Schneider concludes: "Islam doesn't need a protective clause against caricatures and critique. What it really needs is an escape clause, a readiness to open itself up to the modern world in which Muslims have also been living for a long time – and a commemoration of the heroes of its own betrayed Renaissance."
See our feature "The panic savers" (in English) by Peter Schneider.

2/22/06 Jail sentence for David Irving. Should those who deny the Holocaust like the British Historian David Irving be placed behind bars? Spiegel ONLINE discusses weighing rights like freedom of expression against the historical facts with German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler. http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,402404,00.html

Germany - Die Welt. Irshad Manji, a Canadian and Visiting
Fellow at Yale University, asks why people shouldn't be allowed
to make jokes about Muslims. "We Muslims can't pretend to have
the integrity to demand respect for our religion if we don't
respect the religions of others. When have we ever demanded
that Christians and Jews be allowed to set foot in Mecca? Only
when they come for business reasons are they allowed to enter.
As long as Rome continues to welcome non-Christians and
Jerusalem welcomes non-Jews, we Muslims should be protesting
against more than these cartoons." +++
http://www.welt.de/data/2006/02/07/842160.html

+++ United Kingdom - The Guardian. Tabish Khair, an author,
english professor and self-professed "moderate Muslim" says he
has remained silent on the cartoon controversy "because there
is no space left for me either in Denmark or in many Muslim
countries. ... Between the Danish government and Islamist
politicians, between Jyllands-Posten and the mobs in Beirut ...
The moderate Muslim has again been effectively silenced. She has
been forced to take this side or that; forced to stay home and
let others crusade for a cause dear to her - freedom - and a
cultural heritage essential to her: Islam. On TV she sees the
bearded mobs rampage and the clean-shaven white men preach. In
the clash of civilisations that is being rigorously manufactured, she is
in between. ... She cannot scream. Come to think of it, can she really
express herself at all now?" +++
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1703696,00.html

The Cartoon Jihad: 'Satanic Verses Taught us a Lesson' In her work as a social anthropologist, Professor Pnina Werbner of Britain's Keele University, has written extensively about the "Satanic Verses" affair and the tumult Salman Rushdie's novel created between wetern and Muslim cultures. In an interview with Spiegel Online she compares the greatest literary debate of our time to the outrage over Danish caricatures of Muhammed.

La ministra holandesa de Inmigración quiere que en la calle sólo se hable holandés
El plan busca "armonía social", pero irrita a la oposición de izquierdas y a los empresarios

ISABEL FERRER - La Haya
Convertida en una figura que parece comandar a veces la agenda política holandesa desde su ministerio, el de Inmigración e Integración, la liberal Rita Verdonk ha levantado la última y más densa polvareda nacional que se recuerda. Ha propuesto que todos los ciudadanos hablen sólo holandés en la calle. La reacción ha sido inmediata. A favor de la idea se ha mostrado la democracia cristiana, que gobierna en coalición con los liberales. En contra, las asociaciones de inmigrantes, la oposición socialdemócrata, los liberales de izquierda y los empresarios, entre otros.http://www.elpais.es/articulo/elpporint/20060130elpepisoc_4/Tes/sociedad/ministra/holandes