Danke, Thilo!

New Book Plunges Germany into Immigration Debate

Are Muslim immigrants a drag on German prosperity? A new book by provocateur Thilo Sarrazin, a board member of the German central bank, argues that they are. His over-the-top comments have triggered yet another debate on immigration in the country...

"If the fertility rate of German autochthons [indigenous] remains at the level it has been at for the past 40 years, then in the course of the next three or four generations, the number of the Germans will sink to 20 million," he writes in the book. "And, incidentally, it is absolutely realistic that the Muslim population, through a combination of a higher birth rate and continuation of immigration, could grow by 2100 to 35 million." In another passage, he writes: "I don't want the country of my grandchildren and great grandchildren to be largely Muslim, or that Turkish or Arabic will be spoken in large areas, that women will wear headscarves and the daily rhythm is set by the call of the muezzin. If I want to experience that, I can just take a vacation in the Orient."

1 in 5 Germans would vote for Thilo Sarrazin

One-in-five Germans say they would vote for a party headed by banker Thilo Sarrazin who has polarised the country with his book on Muslims and immigration...

As the country‘s central bank prepares to fire him - and his own SPD social democrat party is poised to expel him - Sarrazin‘s book has gone to the top of the best seller charts...

His book, Germany Does Away With Itself‚ is particularly popular among both left-wing and conservative voters.

In it Mr Sarrazin says that Muslim immigrants are a drain on German society and writes: 'most of the cultural and economic problems are concentrated in a group of the five to six million immigrants from Muslim countries'.

He adds: 'I don't want us to end up as strangers in our own land, not even on a regional basis.' ...

Sarrazin, meanwhile, has had to have police guards after immigrants posted death threats against him.

German banker hits nerve with anti-immigration book

His publisher is rushing to print more copies of "Germany Does Itself In" to meet demand. Online retailer Amazon.de has a massive 207 reader reviews on its website, with the average score 4.4 stars out of a possible five...

"If I want to hear the muezzin's call to prayer, then I'll go to the Orient," he says, saying that allowing in millions of "guest workers" in the 1960s and 1970s was a "gigantic error." ...

Chancellor Angela Merkel called the remarks "completely unacceptable."

... Sarrazin's book has thrown the spotlight on the fact that Germany's record is poor on integrating its 15.6 million people with what the government calls "a migration background." ...

According to a study from Bielefeld University, one in two Germans thinks there are too many foreigners in the country.

File under: Marieke Hardy's unpublished dossyair dossieyre file of racists that can spell.