World Jewish News

Merkel vows to protect Jews and Muslims living in Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Thursday to protect Jews and Muslims living in Germany from prejudice, saying vibrant democracy was thebest way to combat the sort of extremist violence that shook France last week.
She told the Bundestag, the lower house of German parliament in Berlin that Islamist extremism and anti-Semitism "often go hand-in-hand".
Echoing her comments on Monday that "Islam belongs to Germany", she said: "Jewish life belongs with us."
"We will prosecute anti-Semitic crimes by all legal means," she said during a debate on the Paris attacks. "And attacks on mosques will be prosecuted rigorously, because we won't be divided by those using Islamist terrorism to cast suspicion on all Muslims in Germany.""As chancellor I will protect Muslims in our country. All of us in this house will do that," she said.
The German government is tightening the law to prevent recruitment and funding of jihadists and wants to facilitate the use of data from phone calls and airline passenger lists to fight extremism.
A poll conducted before the Paris attacks said 57 % of non-Muslims in Germany felt threatened by Islam. But Merkel said law-abiding Muslims needed protection from "hate preachers" and groups such as Islamic State who were trying to radicalise them.
4 million Muslims live in Germany where the Jewish population is around 200,000.

EJP