The following TV news report from Germany serves as a video follow-up to the five-part series about Neukölln mayor Heinz Buschkowsky and his new book (see: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5). It discusses the evolution of a parallel sharia legal system in the Muslim ghettos of major German cities.
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In the meantime, a kind of parallel world has developed in the Muslim districts |
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of many big German cities, often also with parallel Islamic justice. |
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People trust a self-appointed “Peace Judge” more than the German police |
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and the German judiciary. In this way crimes ranging from violent acts to attempted murders |
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remain unpunished by the German law. Our reporter [name] has met the controversial peace |
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judge of Neukölln. |
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We want to interview this man, but we meet mistrust. We are filmed |
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while filming, an unusual situation. He is neither a dangerous criminal nor a mullah; |
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Hassan Alush sees himself as the law, renders judgment and keeps the peace |
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in a district of Berlin which has long ago turned into a parallel society. German justice |
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no longer has much to say in his territory. Because Hassan Alush is |
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the Arab peace judge of Neukölln-Berlin. |
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“One cannot live without law, but one needs an iron fist to maintain it.” |
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We are there as he mediates in a family dispute. Many migrants here |
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no longer trust German justice. So they have organized it for themselves. |
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We have founded our own city. Do you know what this means? We founded a city. |
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For example, our peace judges. If we have problems, we go to them. |
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Basically this is nothing more than the undermining of our constitutional state. |
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An Islamic parallel justice has developed in the middle of Berlin, and |
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this is his district. Heinz Buschkowsky has been warning of this for a long time. |
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What do you have to say about so many peace judges in Berlin? |
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I find it truly frightening. This is nothing more than the direct way to anarchy. |
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How many parallel societies is Germany coping with? |
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Berlin, Neukölln. Almost every second inhabitant has a so-called migration background. |
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The level of criminality is twice as high as in other similar districts. |
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A reason: the largely Muslim population have long since stopped trusting the German police. |
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We meet a youngster who tells us this in a rather blunt way. |
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(It’s a) feeling of hate towards all of them. All cops. |
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— You feel that? — Yeah, yeah. — Why? |
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So it is. Because they are always keeping an eye on me, and on immigrants. |
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Always keeping an eye. Even if you do nothing, in the street, they catch you, |
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they push you into a corner, pick out the handcuffs, in front of everybody. |
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— Seen this already? — Yes, many times. And for me this is not OK. |
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Do you respect the German police? |
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— No, absolutely not. Let them show respect towards me. — Why? |
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What? If they do not have respect towards me, then neither will I have any towards them. |
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— Do you respect the peace judges? — Yeah, yeah, absolutely. — Why? |
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Yeah, because… they make peace. |
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So youngsters like this respect the peace judges. |
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We try come into contact with one of them, but this is not so easy, |
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because peace judges are very busy in Berlin. |
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At 3 p.m. in the [name] Grill, you said? Everything OK. |
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Mistrust is part of his job, and the so-called peace judge |
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has already had bad experiences with reporters. |
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He comes with his daughter who is always with him, and documents |
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everything for fear of false reporting by part of the media. |
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How long have you been a peacemaker? |
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I started with this job in 1990, and from then on I’ve always been a peacemaker, |
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and I do everything I can in order to help people, because we live in Germany, |
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we want to live here in peace and security. |
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OK. The Germans tell you ,for example: we have German justice, |
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why do we need peacemakers here? |
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OK. For example, I am, if I receive a phone call, no matter at what hour, |
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my mobile is 24 hours on, when my mobile rings, and I hear that there are |
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problems somewhere, I run there immediately, and I talk with both parties |
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in order to calm them, OK? And I bring peace and calmness. |
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Hassan Alush considers himself to be a link between German justice |
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and his fellow Muslim countrymen, and offers his services for free. |
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But he settles the majority of conflicts in circumvention of local laws. |
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As for judging, the 58-year-old is tough with his clients. For him, |
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German laws are too feeble. |
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Far too weak. For example, in such criminal cases as drug trafficking, |
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murder or this or that, they get a punishment of 2, 3, 5 years. |
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Where do they serve their sentence? In an “open prison” in Spandau-Hakenfelde. |
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They must spend the night there, and by day they walk free. This is no prison. |
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And the criminals have nothing to worry about, and why? |
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His wife and his children get the money, the livelihood, everything |
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from the welfare office and the job center, and he says: |
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“I do not care, I serve sentence here, and I can continue with my drug business, |
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my wife and my children are safe, they get everything.” No, stop this! |
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We do not want him in Germany! He must be expelled! Away with him! |
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But in spite of, or just because of his attitude, almost every Arab in Berlin |
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respects him and has his phone number. This is why a quiet conversation (with him) |
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is hardly possible to maintain. He is continually called. A new case. |
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The Lebanese-born is not an elected peace judge, but he was born into this position. |
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The ancestors of Alush were also mediators in disputes. |
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They are highly respected in the Muslim community. |
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Among his tasks: mediation and |
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arbitration between clans before their disputes escalate, but… |
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There are of course situations where he does not help them, |
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when he turns off his mobile right away, as for example in cases of terrorism, |
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trading in weapons, etc… |
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The issues involving protection money are not too difficult for him. |
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Here in this slaughterhouse Suleiman al Mustafa works. |
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He has been for years extorted by his own countrymen, the protection money mafia. |
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As his livelihood was in danger, and he no longer knew what to do, |
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he turned to the peace judge. |
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What kind of problem did you have? |
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Extortion. Those people falsified some things using my name, papers and documents; |
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it was about money, here and there, all the time, more than 120,000 euros. |
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— So you were extorted for protection money. — Yes |
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— Is this normal here in Neukölln? — In Germany, not only in Neukölln. Everywhere. |
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Extortion of protection money, a crime punishable in Germany by up to 5 years |
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in prison, if punished at all. Many victims have no trust. |
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Why don’t you want to go to the police? |
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They (the mafia) threatened me and my family, that they would destroy us, |
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they would do this or that to us, and this is why one tries to solve this in a peaceful way, |
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with money and so on, but in a certain moment things failed. |
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— How long have they been extorting you? How long? — More than a year and a half. |
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He did not want to go straight to the police, but there was my plan, first I took him |
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to the lawyer and afterwards I talked with him once more in order to go to the police |
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with the lawyer. And things worked. And since then things have been calm for him. |
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How would you see it if someone forbids what he is doing? |
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One cannot forbid this, because he is not doing something wrong. |
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Just the opposite, he helps people. He is on the side of law, and not against it. |
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This father of 2 dared to go to the police only with the help of the peace judge, |
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and all parties were satisfied. He is not. Heinz Buschkowsky is the major of this district, |
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and doesn’t agree with this sort of problem-solving method. He has been |
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warning for a long time about parallel justice. |
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When I first talked about the peace judges five or six years ago, |
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people began teasing me: “Hey you, you Dumb August [low-class clown], |
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what do they look like? Where could we meet with them? And so on… |
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The mayor’s much-discussed book “Neukölln ist Überall” is found among the top |
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positions in the lists of bestsellers. In it he describes the problematic everyday life |
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in his district with a 41% immigrant population. |
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He sees the parallel justice as something already long ago established in Neukölln. |
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There is the famous example that here in Neukölln there was a shooting openly on a street, |
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the police scraped out 60 bullets from the building walls, and there were injured people, |
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and all involved in this issue stood in the court figuratively holding each other’s hands, |
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they stared at the judge and said: “Mr. Judge, there is nothing to discuss here, |
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we have already reached an agreement”. This is what we realize, |
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that those involved deal among themselves, whether a shooting, a robbery |
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or other different businesses It is often about influence, about a certain proportion |
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of immigrants in the organized crime, with free play, that power is handed over to them. |
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That is not possible, that means heading directly towards anarchy. |
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Berlin Neukölln, Hasenheide — The most conflict-ridden sector of Buschkowsky’s district. |
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Whoever lives here has long ago joined the parallel society. |
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Robbery, extortion, drug trafficking and violence are part of daily life. |
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Section 55 of the police in Neukölln has plenty of work, |
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but they have no longer much to say. A situation of anarchy? |
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We are put into a hole. They look for places where there are many immigrants, |
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they send us right there. Why do they not send us where the Germans are, |
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so that we could integrate? This IS integration, but there is nothing about that. It’s a division: |
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foreigners — Germans. This is sh**. |
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The inhabitants no longer trust politicians and police; they feel that they have been |
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left behind. In this way, the gap is already there for the parallel society (to form). |
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We have founded our own city. Do you know what this means? We founded a city. |
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For example, our peace judges. If we have stress (problems), we go to them, and we say: |
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“we have this problem”. Why? We could also go to the police! |
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They are trained to protect us! But no, but no, a wound must be inflicted |
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so that they can help you. I do not need this kind of sh***y help. |
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What is important for me is help coming before something happens to me. |
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The German police are seen here not as a friend and a helper, but as the new enemy. |
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I tell you something. If someone is killed, then one says: “Oh, what a pity”. |
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But if one hears that a police agent has been shot, then: “Oh, that’s fine” |
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War declared by those who cause fear. How do police in Berlin deal with these |
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developments? Karsten Wendt sees that police work is being hindered. |
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From my point of view there are diverse cases where mediators, |
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among them also the self-appointed peace judges, have mediated between the parties, |
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that is, between the perpetrators of crimes and the victims, without involving the police, |
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and sometimes, at the end of the investigation, we do not know what happened, |
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because the facts told by the witnesses, by the victims, |
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are presented in fairly different ways. |
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Joachim Wagner has devoted an entire book to parallel justice in Germany, |
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and a chapter to the Arab peace judges. |
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In all immigrant districts dominated by Muslims, whether in Berlin, |
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in North Rhine-Westphalia, or in Bremen, parallel Islamic justice exists. |
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Does this put the German constitutional state in danger? |
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One may say that it is wonderful that such traditions are preserved and upheld, |
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but this proves fatal as long as they stand in opposition to our constitutional state, |
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because they have such things as the blood revenge, which belongs to it, |
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and self-justice, which also belongs to parallel Islamic justice. |
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Hassan Alush lives a dangerous life. Because when conflicts are handled without |
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the involvement of German justice, then it cannot intervene if something happens. |
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The 58-year-old Lebanese has already met with blood revenge |
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and self-justice in his environment. He seldom goes to the street without bullet-proof vest, |
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and he keeps his address secret. He had to take these measures |
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so as not to end like his brother. |
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In 2004, somebody punctured the tires of my brother’s car, |
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he wanted to take his children to school early in the morning, |
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and as he wanted to see what happened to the tires, my brother’s murderer came |
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from behind, and shot him three times, twice in the head, and once in the spine. |
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— In Berlin? — In Berlin |
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The 38-year-old father, executed openly in the street, in Germany. |
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He was also a mediator, and he became the target in a family feud |
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because he was allegedly partial towards one of the parties. |
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Why is Alush a peace judge, when he is risking his life with this job? |
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I must always fear those men, and if I have to die because I’m a peace judge, then |
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I will die as a martyr for Germany, and I leave the good reputation for my children. |
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We do not have a lot of money, but we are respected, because we help other people, |
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we are honest and correct. |
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Officially, Alush is secondhand car dealer. He says that he receives no money for |
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his work as peace judge. Now when everything is solved behind the scenes with no |
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involvement by German justice, participants like his brother also become a target, |
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and they are defenselessly exposed to the parallel justice, with its own rules. |
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The position of Alush has in this way become a thorn not only in the |
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side of Arab gangsters, but also in that of German critics. |
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I accuse the peace judges of trying to undermine the German law’s entitlement |
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to punish. Compared to the peace judges, the German constitutional state must |
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be more defensive, it must “show its teeth”, to intervene in those cases |
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which need to be handled in order to stop this informal Islamic parallel justice. |
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And as this fails to happen, Hassan Alush is in more demand than ever. |
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The mosque in Neukölln at Columbiadamm is the biggest of some two dozen in Berlin. |
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Today, a funeral service is taking place here. The deceased is the father of this man. |
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A natural death. |
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Today we have a funeral, and we have no strength to deal with this, |
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Hassan is always there for us. |
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This is another of the duties of a peace judge. Gestures like this are those which |
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make him earn respect among his fellow countrymen. He is there for them, |
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in every situation in life. Helping community members to deal with grief, |
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or with family conflicts. In Arab culture, the family is paramount. |
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The involvement of strangers is taboo and is the equivalent of a loss of honor. |
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To be allowed to be here is almost like being present at a confession (in church), |
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because the family problems are the most intimate issues in the Islamic society. |
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In this case it was about four children who were taken away from their biological parents. |
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A classic dispute over custody rights, which he has handled as a social worker. |
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He helped us to come out of the social center… he has helped us… |
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So you were brought to the center, and dad helped you to come out so that |
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— you all can be together with grandma and grandpa. — Yes |
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Even the most difficult cases are solved easily and quickly in the |
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company of tea and pastries. This is what goes on among the families. |
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The authorities sit in their offices, and talk for one, two, five minutes: |
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“yes, we take care”. I don’t know whether they take care properly or not, |
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but I run, and run, and run, |
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especially in a case like this, because it affects four children. |
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Not only are German authorities not welcomed here, |
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police action would also make things worse. |
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When somebody from the other side calls the police, and a complaint is filed, |
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then the situation escalates, and more anger arises, but if the peace judge comes, |
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then issues are solved in a 99.9% of the cases. |
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Hassan Alush deals daily with such issues, from relatively harmless family problems |
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to honor killing, and he makes his needs clear. |
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I do everything I can in order to help people so that we can all live in peace. |
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And what do I ask for from the state? An office, and a car with a blue light, |
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a helper from the state, and they have to accept me entirely. I’ve been doing this |
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already for 20 years. Goodbye and have a peaceful life. |
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Here ends our filming work with the peace judge from Neukölln. |
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He must continue. He says that he has never had so much to do. |
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A serious dialogue between the German authorities and Hassan Alush |
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has unfortunately still not taken place. |