Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Berlin angry at Muslim segregation demand.
The dialogue between the German government and the country's Muslim community is heating up shortly before the second leg of an integration conference. Maria Boehmer, Germany's envoy for integration matters and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, has harshly criticized a demand made by the German Muslim community to separate girls and boys in the physical education classroom.

"We will not allow that a small minority of backward people wants to install (in Germany) the rules of their grandfathers," she told the Neue Osnarbruecker Zeitung newspaper.

...a small minority of backward people. That's one way to look at it. She's got the backward part right. There are an estimated 3.2 million Muslims in Germany. Most are guest workers from Turkey.