The Silencing of Dissent in Germany

Here at Gates of Vienna we often write about the attempts to silence political dissent in Western Europe. Those who oppose mass immigration and Islamization are particularly subject to state repression. The tactics of intimidation and state prosecution are so similar across the continent, and even in Canada, the United States, and Australia, that one must assume that the campaign proceeds under some sort of central direction, perhaps at the behest of the OIC.

The German government raised the stakes the other day in its struggle with anti-immigration dissidents. Most readers are familiar with Politically Incorrect, an Islam-critical website and the most popular alternative source of news in Germany. PI and other “Islamophobic” websites are now under official investigation for possible violations of the German constitution.

Soeren Kern has just written an article at the Stonegate Institute (formerly the Hudson Institute) about this ominous trend. Below are some excerpts:

Germany Attempts to Silence Criticism of Islam
by Soeren Kern

German authorities have officially confirmed that they are monitoring German-language Internet websites that are critical of Muslim immigration and the Islamization of Europe.

According to Manfred Murck, director of the Hamburg branch of the German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), his organization is studying whether German citizens who criticize Muslims and Islam on the Internet are fomenting hate and are thus criminally guilty of “breaching” the German constitution.

The BfV’s move marks a significant setback for the exercise of free speech in Germany and comes amid a months-long smear campaign led by a triple alliance of leftwing German multicultural elites, sundry Muslim groups and members of the mainstream media, who have been relentless in their efforts to discredit the so-called counter-jihad movement (also known as the “Islamophobes”) in Germany.

Opinion polls show that growing numbers of ordinary German citizens are worried about the consequences of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged mass immigration from Muslim countries.

Germans are especially concerned about the refusal of millions of Muslim immigrants to integrate into German society, as well as the emergence of a parallel legal system in Germany based on Islamic Sharia law.

In an effort to reverse this tide of public opinion, the guardians of German multiculturalism have been working overtime to regain the initiative by accusing the critics of Islam of engaging in hate speech to try to intimidate the so-called “new right” into silence.

The media campaign has been led by two financially troubled newspapers, the Berliner Zeitung and its sister publication, the Frankfurter Rundschau, as well as Der Spiegel, a leftwing magazine based in Hamburg that has long served as the mouthpiece for German multiculturalism.

In a January 4, 2012 interview with the Berliner Zeitung andFrankfurter Rundschau, Murck said the owners of anti-Islam blogs “have a disturbed relationship to the democratic constitutional state” and often promote “infringements of human rights protected under our constitution.”

Murck continued: “I also see evidence of criminal relevance, such as making threats and public invitations to crime.” He said criticism of Muslims and Islam constitutes “an attack against the freedom of religion, which is protected by Article 4 of the Basic Law.”

The Berliner Zeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau interview was conducted by Steven Geyer und Jörg Schindler, two journalists and propagandists who have been leading an ongoing effort to shut down a highly popular German-language Internet website called Politically Incorrect (PI), which over the years has grown into a major information resource for Germans concerned about the spread of Islam in their country.

Read the rest at the Stonegate Institute.