“Integration” Means I Can Do Whatever I Please!

The following clip is from an Arabic-language Deutsche Welle program touted as a “talk show for Arab youth”. It appeared on the Facebook page of Markus Frohnmaier, the AfD delegate who appeared on the show. When Mr. Frohnmaier was interviewed by the host, he spoke in German, with an Arabic voice-over. The entire video was then subtitled in German.

MissPiggy, who translated the German subtitles into English, includes this contextual explanation:

They didn’t do an accurate job with the German subtitles.

I can hear Markus Frohnmaier speaking, and compare what he says with the German subtitles. The slightest of changes can make him seem like a jerk. Especially in his reply to her accusation.

Another example, concerning the handshake — The subtitles say: “According to my child-rearing, you MUST follow the ritual of courtesy when you meet someone.” He actually says: “I learned as a child to follow the ritual of courtesy when meeting someone.”

The aim is to make him seem “authoritarian”.

Miss Piggy translated the spoken German as she heard it, and not the subtitles translated from the Arabic voice-over.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00   Today I wanted to start with a news report, but something happened backstage that causes us
00:07   to ask a question. When Markus Frohnmaier tried to shake your hand, you refused.
00:15   We’re discussing how integration can work. Why did you refuse to shake his hand?
00:22   I refused to because I had reservations about coming to the show after finding
00:27   out that this person from the AfD is here, but we live in a democratic country and should
00:35   leave room for the other opinions. For that reason I decided to come here.
00:42   However, I cannot shake hands with a man who portrays people from the Middle East
00:54   and Africa as “knife-wielding migrants” and calls them “lumpenproletariat” — this term belongs
01:02   to Karl Marx that portrays people in Africa and the Middle East as being barbaric and
01:10   coming from a lower social class that has no culture. I refuse to shake hands with a person
01:14   like him. —How do you respond? —I was taught as a child to follow the rituals of courtesy
01:26   when meeting another person. It is also one of the values of Central Europe to shake hands
01:34   when meeting, and I was a bit surprised that she refused. Also, it is not true what she was said
01:41   about the AfD, that our party despises people from other nations. Hopefully during the
01:50   broadcast we will have enough opportunity to talk about how things really are. In this particular
01:56   example there needs to be a clarification, since the party is being obviously misrepresented
02:01   in the media and among the public. —OK, a part of the audience does not agree. Go on, Rola.
02:10   Everyone can search the internet and find this in all newspapers. —He considers
02:17   shaking hands a part of European values, he is also a democratically-elected representative
02:25   in the Bundestag. Why don’t you let him shake your hand? —These values also exist
02:30   in my culture, and in the culture of the people in the Middle East. Nevertheless, I’m not obliged
02:34   to shake a person’s hand if I have a reservation against a person. No more and no less.
02:39   Even if someone is democratically elected, we all know that Hitler was also democratically
02:43   elected and what he brought Germany to.
02:47   Under German law, Rola has the right to apply for German citizenship, which allows her
02:52   to enjoy all the rights of German citizenship. But she refuses.
03:01   I still have the feeling that the authorities and many among the German people wouldn’t
03:08   treat me as German. My appearance indicates that I’m not German, that’s why the treatment
03:14   will remain different, even if I have a German passport in my pocket.
03:18   Most or some people think that integration is an individual process. That is completely wrong.
03:28   Integration is a bilateral or even threefold process.
03:32   Integration starts with me as an individual, I have to
03:35   work on myself. I have come into a society and I should try to adapt. At the same time,
03:42   the state must offer me the same rights and opportunities. —What are you criticising? What
03:49   is missing, what hinders the integration? —Equal rights and non-discrimination.
03:58   I don’t agree with you about how laws are formulated… Hmmm, how do we say it in Arabic?
04:10   Say it in German. —If discriminatory laws have been legally drafted in legal language,
04:18   then I do not have to accept them. That’s my answer.
 

4 thoughts on ““Integration” Means I Can Do Whatever I Please!

  1. It’s impossible to argue with such people because their method of argument flies in the face of Western logic. It’s interesting how this video exposes the similarities in the arguing styles of both left and Islam – neither group appears aware in the slightest of the blatant self-contradiction of their stance.

  2. Arguing with a muslim? That is like trying to nail a blancmange to a wall.( ancient popular saying)

  3. … “integration ..”? In Arabic – in Germany?
    Speaking in German would be a first step. If they don’t need/want to at least speak the host language, where is there any impetus to communicate, much less than integrate?

  4. Am I right, she doesn’t feel bound by the laws of the land she has immigrated to? Hell, I don’t feel bound by the speed limit, by inability to sacrifice cats to the moon goddess, or to carry car insurance. I think I’ll adopt her beliefs!

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