As reported previously, many German cities had a lively New Year’s Eve, with mischievous culture-enrichers enlivening the streets with carbecues, fireworks, and attacks on the rescue services. However, to mention the ethnicity of the rioters is, as usual, denounced as “racism”.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Pleiteticker.de:

This is how they want to silence us with the racism club

Burning buses, attacks on rescue workers and devastated streets: After the riots on New Year’s Eve, a debate about failed integration in Germany broke out. The reason: Among the rioters were mainly young men with a migration background, as reported by rescue workers, but also as numerous social media videos show. For fear of strengthening “the right”, many politicians and journalists want to prevent a debate by reflexively defaming critics as racists.

In European countries there is a problem with violent immigrants who often live in parallel Arab societies, are poorly integrated and like to act out their aversion to Western values on special occasions. There are enough examples of this: New Year’s Eve in Cologne, the riots in Stuttgart in the summer of 2020, the recent riots by Moroccan fans after the World Cup game in Brussels, but also the brutal murders and rapes committed by asylum seekers in recent months.

The fact is: people with an Arab migration background are disproportionately represented in the crime statistics, which is why a debate about the origin of the perpetrators and failed integration and migration policies is urgently needed.

After all, anyone who says that some Arab immigrants are violent does not want to deny every Syrian or Afghan the right to seek asylum. Anyone who sees Merkel’s refugee policy as the cause is not automatically demanding closed borders. Anyone who observes a questionable understanding of freedom, respect for women and Western values in many Arab cultures is not a racist who wants to stigmatize entire countries or population groups. In short: As a rule, responsible citizens should be able to make distinctions even in heated debates.

Except in Germany. For fear of strengthening “the right” and appearing to be racists themselves when talking about the origin of the perpetrators, many journalists and politicians reflexively blame the riots on secondary factors: the fireworks, the poverty, the corona pandemic, the temperature; even “white men” are said to be to blame for the violence. The perfidy: Any person who does not agree with this denial of reality is defamed as a racist and executed on social media.

The Spiegel author Ralf Thelen, for example, described the former Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn a “Nazi” because he saw “unregulated migration” as the cause of the riots, while the SPD politician Helge Lindh blamed the former health minister for all of the racism in Germany.

Can you actually call Jens Spahn a Nazi? pic.twitter.com/tpyEErha6x

— Raphael Thelen (@RaphaelThelen), January 2, 2023

And the CDU interior policy expert Christoph de Vries was also attacked because he addressed the origin of the perpetrators. The Green politician Canan Bayram accused him of “racist stereotypes”, while her party colleague Lamyar Kaddor does not see the problem as lying with the migrants, but with “white Western European men” who address the origin of the perpetrators. Monitor head Georg Restle accused him of “blatant racism” reminiscent of the “worst times” — an unconcealed Nazi comparison.

Blank racism within the CDU, reminiscent of the worst times. The man is a repeat offender. Where is the clear reaction from the CDU leadership? pic.twitter.com/eX5hhGnFe4

— Georg Restle (@georgrestle) January 3, 2023

The FDP politician Katja Adler was hit even harder. In a tweet, she complained that in the debate “again, every thought of cultural infiltration” was reflexively “pushed into the right, even radical corner”. Ironically, countless users then accused her of racism, right-wing extremism and proximity to National Socialism, so Adler deleted the tweet and apologized.

But even the Ministry of Integration does not want to acknowledge the problem, and critics even accuse it of dividing society. In response to a request from Pleitticker.de, Integration Minister Reem Alabali-Radovan said: “We have to judge the perpetrators based on their actions, not on their assumed origin, as some are doing now. Anyone who now reacts with general suspicion towards people with a family history of immigration contributes to the further stigmatization of parts of society and divides instead of fighting the social causes of the problem.”

Afterword from the translator:

It’s amazing the way many of the more voluble “critics” have names that do not sound in the least German. Germany as a country is already two steps over the abyss, and most haven’t realized that they’re already in free fall without a parachute. As someone once said — can’t remember who it was right now — “You can ignore reality, but you can not ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”