Giving a Nazi salute at the notorious Dachau concentration camp not only shows tremendous ignorance but is a slap in the face to all the victims of Hitler’s racial policies. According to The Nomad Today, a Spanish ex-pat online newsletter, two Finnish tourists who visited the camp gave a Nazi salute. Writes The Nomad Today:…
Tag: Germany
Education without empathy and moral compass can turn you into a monster
The process to turn Finland’s far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party wants to become “a normal mainstream” party continues. You see, they claim, we’re “normal” because we have physicists and party members, like Riikka Purra, working on their PhDs. Sakari Puisto, who is also vying to be elected chairperson of the PS and Purra, has a Ph.D….
Ahmad Liath: “I left Iraq because I long for freedom”
Ahmad Liath was twelve years old when he left Iraq in 2005. Two years before that year, the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and in 2004 his father was killed.
Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD): Enriching the Public Discourse by highlighting Colonial Continuities
The Initiative of Black People in Germany (ISD)* has been actively working on the empowerment of people of African descent and Black people in Germany for almost 30 years. Its aim is to raise their voices and also to generate visibility for their perspectives and realities in the German society. The ISD is dedicated to challenging the discourse that does not want to see nor acknowledge Black presence in Germany. For more than three hundred years, people of African descent have been born and raised in Germany, have made Germany their place of home, but narratives about the Black experience in Germany often remain silenced in the public discourse. While their stories do not exist in the dominant historiography, stereotypical clichés dominate the images of the Black Diaspora. Racist pictures and beliefs need to be understood as a historically developed relationship of power – blurring past and present depictions of Black people’s realities.
Authorities should look at factors like social exclusion, third culture and school bullying for what happened in Munich
As the dust settles over what happened in Munich on Friday, when Ali Sonboly took the lives of nine people and injured tens of others, there are a lot of questions that are taking our eyes off the ball. Instead of talking about “Islamic terrorism,” why are we not talking about some other motives that could have played important roles in the tragedy?
Asylum seekers have exposed Europe’s schizophrenia and bigotry
Nothing could depict better Europe’s schizophrenia and hypocrisy concerning asylum seekers than what happened recently in eastern Germany, where a building that was going to house them was ablaze and cheered by some onlookers, according to the BBC.
YouGov: Of seven countries surveyed Finland ranked as the most intolerant with Denmark
Of the seven countries surveyed, Finland was ranked together with Denmark as the most intolerant country to black people, gays, and Jews, according to YouGov, an internet-based market research company. Other countries that were surveyed were France, Germany, Britain, Norway and Sweden.
An apology from a former Islamophobe
Kathrin Oetrel of Pegida, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, formally apologized for her role as spokeswoman in the far-right Islamophobic movement. When will Islamophobic and xenophobic politicians in countries like Finland apologize in the same manner as Pegida’s former spokeswoman? Don’t hold your breaths, however. There will be no…
German Pegida movement leader quits after posing as Hitler
Lutz Bachmann, the head of Germany’s anti-Islam Pegida movement, quit after he posed on his Facebook as Hitler. The excuses and explanations after what Bachmann did are disingenuous. We’ve heard it so many times when these types of people get their fingers burned: Satire! Kathrin Oertel, a Pegida spokeswoman, said that while Bachmann’s comments about refugees…
Julian Abagond: Was Hitler evil?
MT comment: Was Hitler and the Nazis an aberration or a product of European racism and colonialism? Was the devastation that Hitler sowed the same beast that Europeans had imposed on others in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia? By blaming Hitler and the Nazis for what they did, are we denying the problem of…