According to Reuter on 19 April 2012, Volker Kauder, Chairperson of Prime Minister Angela Markel’s Christian Democratic Union parliamentary group, while addressing a Muslim integration conference in Berlin, kicked up a controversy by emphasizing that Islam is not a part of Germany.
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Said Kauder, "Islam is not part of our tradition and identity in Germany and so does not belong in Germany.”
"But Muslims do belong in Germany. As state citizens, of course, they enjoy their full rights," he added.
Kauder's comments quickly drew attacks from the German left, as senior opposition Social Democrat (SPD) lawmaker Thomas Oppermann said, "Volker Kauder is the last crusader for the conservatives. He is putting a bomb in the Islam conference."
"(He)... is denigrating and marginalizing all Muslims in Germany. That course is utterly wrong," he added.
Kauder’s comment comes amidst controversy generated by a Salafist group's announcement that it would distribute 25 million copies of the Quran for free in pedestrian zones across the country. The group has already handed out 300,000 copies of the Quran in German language to pedestrian stands.
The aim of group's Quran distribution blitz is to attract recruits to its ideological agenda, which is espoused by Al-Qaeda and like-minded Jihadi groups around the world.
Naturally, the Salafist's propaganda agenda worries the Germans, as it will target unsuspecting and vulnerable young people for radicalization.
Echoing the worry, said Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, "The issue has us very concerned," because the Salafists maintain "a very target-oriented propaganda network" with which they can reach out to young people with or without immigrant backgrounds.
Kenan Kolat, a Muslim activist and chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany, said of the Salafist agenda, "When these groups oppose the democratic order, then they need to be banned."
Like Kauder, Germany's former central banker Thilo Sarrazin raised a similar controversy by publishing a best selling book, which claimed the Turkish and Arab immigrants sponged off the state and threatened German culture.
The-then Germany President Christian Wulff had to assuage the Muslim anger by saying that Islam was part of Germany.
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