Mina Ahadi has received death
threats after founding the group

An Iranian human rights activist living in Germany has formed a "Central Council of ex-Muslims in Germany" with 40 others and has received anonymous death threats after declaring she wants to help people to leave the religion if they so desire.

Iranian-born Mina Ahadi, 50, said she set up the group to highlight the difficulties of renouncing the Islamic faith which she believes to be misogynist. She wants the group to form a counterweight to Muslim organisations that she says don't adequately represent Germany's secular-minded Muslim immigrants.

Ahadi has been put under police protection in recent days. Renouncing Islam can carry the death penalty in a number of countries including Iran, Saudi-Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Mauritania. In other countries people who turn their backs on the faith aren't punished by courts, but they are often ostracized by family and friends. It's a difficult subject among Muslim communities in Europe too.

Ahadi said she wants the new organization to help women who feel oppressed by the rules of the faith to find a way out. The Council will hold a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday to outline its goals.

DER SPIEGEL spoke to Ahadi.

SPIEGEL: Together with 29 other immigrants from Muslim countries you have declared that you have renounced Islam. The campaign is similar to one launched in the 1970s by women who declared publicly that they had had abortions. What is your purpose?

Ahadi: I haven't been a Muslim for 30 years. I'm also critical of Islam in Germany and of the way the German government deals with the issue of Islam. Many Muslim organisations like the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) or Milli Görüs engage in politics or interfere in people's everyday lives. They were invited to the conference on Islam (hosted by the government in Berlin last year). But their aims are hostile to women and to people in general."

SPIEGEL: Why?

Ahadi: They want to force women to wear the headscarf. They promote a climate in which girls aren't allowed to have boyfriends or go to discos and in which homosexuality is demonized. I know Islam and for me it means death and pain.

SPIEGEL: What will your organization do?

SPIEGEL: Some of your members are also active in communist organizations in their home countries.

Ahadi: Yes, many were active in left-wing groups. We have received more than 100 membership applications in recent days. We want to create a new movement, in other European countries too. We hope that soon there will be 10,000 of us representing many more people.

SPIEGEL: Won't your campaign just harden the battle lines?

Ahadi: I don't think it's possible to modernize Islam. We want to form a counterweight to the Muslim organisations. The fact that we're doing this under police protection shows how necessary our initiative is.

Neo-Nazis have smeared swastikas and other Nazi symbols on the walls and gate of a Jewish kindergarten in Berlin, as well as smashing a window and hurling in a smoke bomb, police said.

The daubings were discovered on Sunday. Fortunately the center was unoccupied at the time and the smoke bomb failed to detonate. Police said in a statement they didn't have any leads yet and that the case involved attempted arson, incitement and damage to property.

Berlin rabbi Yehuda Teichtal told Bild newspaper: "This is a new dimension of anti-Semitism in Berlin. I'm shocked that people have gone this far."

The interior minister of Berlin, Eberhard Körting, visited the nursery in Berlin's western Charlottenburg district on Sunday and told reporters: "We're doing all we can to protect the building and catch the perpetrators."

He said the attack on a children's nursery showed a "particular malignance on the part of the perpetrators."

cro
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,468733,00.html
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January 9, 2007

The news on the right-extremist front in Germany has not been good lately. A rising number of attacks, increasing numbers of youths attracted to neo-Nazi groups, and success for the far right at the polls have all raised concerns.

In response, the government in Berlin this week stepped up its fight against right-wing extremism by launching a campaign for diversity this week which will be funded with €19 million. The program, named somewhat clumsily the "Youth for Diversity, Tolerance, Democracy -- Against Right-Wing Extremism, Racism and Anti-Semitism," is meant to send a "clear signal to extremists who want to undermine the values of our society", says Gerd Hoofe, a senior official in the federal ministry for family.

The program will initially fund projects run by 24 local councils and eight independent foundations but will take in another 66 applicants over the next weeks. It is an extension of the government's "Youth for Tolerance and Democracy" program, which ended last November. Its goal is to prevent right-wing extremism through local action and the promotion of cultural diversity.

The rise of right-wing extremism is a serious problem in Germany. Figures for racially-motivated crime for the first 11 months of 2006 -- 11,000 offences including 700 violent crimes -- represented a five-year high. Some parts of East Germany run the risk of becoming right-wing "parallel societies", warns Wolfgang Böhmer, interior minister of the country's most vulnerable state Saxony-Anhalt in former East Germany.

Saxony-Anhalt was badly affected by right-wing extremism last year: In January a black boy was tortured by racists, in June neo-Nazis burned the American flag and the diary of Anne Frank, and in October youths forced a student to walk around with a sign reading: "In this town I'm the biggest swine / because of the Jewish friends of mine."

"What worries us," Zypries told Bild Zeitung, "is the increase in cross border activities among right-wing radicals and trouble makers within Europe. That's why we will use our EU presidency to finally establish common standards in the fight against right-wing extremism."

Previous German attempts to establish a Europe-wide ban on the use of the swastika -- illegal in Germany but allowed in a handful of European countries -- have often been blocked by Italy. The new government in Rome, said Zypries, has signalled its willingness to cooperate.

mkp/reuters

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,458624,00.html
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http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/jewish_kindergarten_attacked_in_berlin/20070228-044048-8792r/
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Berlin Jews voice alarm about escalating anti-Semitism

Agence France Presse

Updated: 27/Feb/2007 16:34

BERLIN (AFP)--- Jewish community leaders in Berlin voiced alarm about escalating anti-Semitism Tuesday after a Jewish kindergarten was attacked and vandalised.

School representatives called on Germans to join Jewish leaders in prayer for "tolerance and solidarity" Thursday after unknown assailants sprayed swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans on the school walls and threw a smoke flare into the building at the weekend.

"The attempt to burn down and lay waste to a Jewish nursery school is a dangerous escalation of intolerance and right-wing radicalism," the Gan-Israel Jewish Nursery School in the western district of Charlottenburg said in a statement.

This is a new dimension of anti-Semitism in Berlin. I'm shocked that people have gone this far. Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal of Chabad Berlin to the Bild newspaper.

"This attack was not only aimed at Jews but against everyone who cherishes freedom and democracy."

The school said that Thursday’s prayers were intended to show "that we will not give in to a threat but will continue to practise Judaism with pride in Berlin."

Police have not identified the perpetrators of Sunday’s attack, who smashed in a window and daubed black SS runes, swastikas and the words “Auschwitz” and "Jews get out".

Authorities said the smoke flare could have set the building on fire.

Fortunately the Gan Israel school was unoccupied at the time.   

Berlin Interior Senator Ehrhart Koerting called the attack "a cowardly act" and said the fact a kindergarten was targeted showed "the particular viciousness of the perpetrators."

German authorities registered more than 12,000 extreme-right crimes, including 726 acts of violence, in the first eight months of 2006, marking a 20 percent rise on the same period the previous year.

All credit given to AFP and European Jewish Press.
http://www.ejpress.org/article/14543
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Jewish kindergarten in Berlin defaced with Nazi slogans

‘Sieg heil’ and ‘Auschwitz’ scrawled on walls, smoke bomb thrown into building; police have no immediate suspects

Associated Press

A Jewish kindergarten in Berlin was defaced on the weekend with swastikas and other Nazi symbols and slogans, police said Sunday.

 

The damage, which also included scrawled slogans like "Sieg heil" and "Auschwitz," was discovered Sunday afternoon, police said.

 

 

A smoke bomb had been thrown into the building but had not ignited.

 

Police had no immediate suspects.

 

Last November a Croatian national was detained after he broke into the Lauder Chabad School in Vienna and systematically smashed windows and porcelain with a crowbar.

 

The man later admitted that he was driven by anti-Semitic sentiments.

 

Defaced kindergarten Photo: AFP 

All credit given to the Associated Press for Photo and Article

Nazi slogans near building Photo: AFP http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3369636,00.html

Vandals attack Berlin kindergarten Vandals sprayed neo-Nazi graffiti on a Jewish kindergarten in Berlin and attempted to set fire to the building. The incident marks a new level in attacks on Jews in Germany, according to Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Police reportedly are instituting round-the-clock protection at the site. Police discovered swastikas, SS runes and anti-Semitic slogans at the Chabad Or Avner kindergarten on Sunday, police spokesman Michael Merkle told JTA. The perpetrators also broke a window in the rear of the building and lobbed a smoke bomb inside that failed to detonate. The school was empty at the time of the attack. Chabad Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal told JTA that the attack strengthened his resolve. “We have to be stronger and put a stronger stress on Jewish education,” he said after visiting the school. Kramer told JTA that he and Teichtal had been requesting 24-hour protection for years. Kramer said graffiti, including the words “Jews go to hell,” was found on the facade of the school and on toys left outdoors.

http://jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=7121

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