Guest Post: Bundesbank Executive Attacks Jews, Turks, Africans et al in Xenophobic Seizure

Submitted by Toni Straka of The Prudent Investor

Bundesbank Executive Attacks Jews, Turks, Africans et al in Xenophobic Seizure

German Bundesbank executive Thilo Sarrazin has sparked a new uproar by
saying that "all Jews share a common gene" and also attacked the Basques
in Spain the same way in a newspaper interview.

This comes only a few days after Sarrazin came under fire in Germany for
using shock talk about the country's Muslim immigrants, Turks, Middle
Easterners and Africans when he presented a new book.

Sarrazin’s new book, whose title translates as “Germany Eliminates
Itself,” sparked a heated debate. A spokesman of the Bundesbank so far
only said that the book is Sarrazin's personal opinion, not exactly
distancing itself from Sarrazin's xenophobic bouts.

His frothy statements were immediately rebutted by foreign minister
Guido Westerwelle and minority representatives. A spokesman for
chancellor Angela Merkel began his Sunday with expressions of outrage.

Sarrazin is still on the job after an interview with conservative German Sunday paper "Welt am Sonntag" where he extended his attacks to Jews.
German official news outlet Deutsche Welle was the first to report on
Sarrazin's nationalistic outbreak that is destined to destroy Germany's
image rebuilt in the last 65 years.

Sarrazin appears to have wild mood swings. In 2009, the central banker,
who is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), had said he would
prefer immigration "if it was by eastern European Jews with a
15-percent-higher IQ than the German population."

His new book, to appear on shelves this week, claims that immigration
from Turkey, the Middle East and Africa would dumb down his country and
led him to draw a line between Christian culture and the rest.

From Deutsche Welle:

German central bank executive Thilo Sarrazin has stirred
fresh controversy over the weekend with discriminatory remarks
concerning religious minorities.
"All Jews share a particular gene," Sarrazin said in an interview. "That makes them different from other peoples."
Sarrazin, who is currently promoting his book "Deutschland schafft sich
ab", remained undeterred in expressing his views despite criticism and
calls for his resignation from the board of the Bundesbank.
The cultural peculiarities of the peoples is no myth, but determines the
reality of Europe," Sarrazin told the newspapers Welt am Sonntag and
Berliner Morgenpost.
Berlin's former finance chief has said in the past that Muslims living
in Germany do not contribute to the country's economic prosperity,
reducing their role to the running of fruit and vegetable stands.
He reiterated his view that Muslim immigrants all over Europe were
integrating more poorly than other immigrant populations into the
societies of their host countries.

In 2009, the
central banker, who is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP),
had said he would prefer immigration "if it was by eastern European Jews
with a 15-percent-higher IQ than the German population."
The Jewish community in Germany reacted with indignation to Sarrazin's attempts at racial profiling.
Whoever tries to define Jews by their genetic makeup, even when it is
superficially positive in tone, is in the grip of a race mania that Jews
do not share," said Stephan Kramer, secretary of the Central Council of
Jews in Germany.
While Sarrazin made reference in his interview to the alleged unique
genetics of social groups, he also claimed he was not racist. It was not
ethnicity, he said, but rather the culture of Islam that kept Muslims
immigrants from integrating into European societies.
Germany's Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, responded to Sarrazin's
latest comments, saying statements "that promote racism or anti-Semitism
have no place in political discourse." 

Radical speech

Roland
Koch, the outgoing premier of the German state of Hesse, told the
newspaper Bild am Sonntag that Sarrazin was pushing himself into the
margins of politics. Koch recognized that the banker was "addressing
existing problems that society mustn't ignore," but added that he
obviously appeared to be concerned only with pursuing "radical speech
and the breaching of taboos."
Before Sarrazin's latest statements were published, the chairman of
Germany's Turkish Federation had called for Sarrazin to be removed from
his post. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel and
Germany's integration commissioner Maria Boehmer expressed outrage at
Sarrazin's statements.
Christian Gaebler of the SDP told news magazine Spiegel that if Sarrazin
did not willingly leave the party, he and other members would "begin
procedures to expel him from the party."
Sarrazin has claimed his views toe the party line. Other parties, he
said, would prefer to see immigrants kicked out of Germany, whereas he
claimed to advocate integration.

Looking at my calendar I
see the date of August 29, 2010. Sarrazin's version must be from 1938.
Berlin's local SPD organisation has initiated a move to expulse Sarrazin from the party.

Finance minister Schaeuble had said on last week to Bloomberg,
he was ashamed of Sarrazin. A Merkel spokesman had called Sarrazin's
views that migrants are making Germany “dumber,” are “not helpful at
all” and “can be hurtful for a lot people.”

IMHO it would be most opportune if we keep religion out of politics. Europe has never fared well on that path.

UPDATE: Reuters quotes a Bundesbank spokesman, saying

they are his personal opinions and not linked to his role at
the bank. The central bank requires evidence of "serious misconduct" to
bring about Sarrazin's dismissal.

The central
bank last year stripped Sarrazin of some of his duties. If the central
bank's board voted to remove Sarrazin, the move would then need the
approval of the president.

and summarized the outrage in official Germany:

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Defence Minister
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Thilo Sarrazin was out of line for
comments about Jews, remarks that were also criticised by Jewish leaders
in the country responsible for the Holocaust...

There's no room in the political debate for remarks that whip up racism or anti-Semitism," Westerwelle said.

"There
are limits to every provocation and Bundesbank board member Sarrazin
has clearly gone out of bounds with this mistaken and inappropriate
comment," Guttenberg added.

Stephan Kramer and
Michel Friedman, leaders in Germany's Jewish community, also criticised
Sarrazin, 65, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and
former finance minister in the city-state of Berlin.

"Someone who tries to define Jews by a genetic make-up is consumed by a racist mania," Kramer said.

"Enough
already!" Friedman wrote in Bild am Sonntag newspaper. (NOTE: This is
Germany's best-selling paper) "No more tolerance for this intolerance.
It's okay to provoke thought but enough of this baiting and defamation.
We don't need any hate preachers, especially in the Bundesbank."