Members of the nationalist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) have backed a political program that declares that Islam does not belong to Germany. The country's right-wing populist AfD Sunday adopted an anti-Islam policy in a manifesto that also demands curbs to immigration as a poll showed it is now the country's 3rd strongest party.
According to Bull Fax, "Islam is not a part of Germany", stated a headline in the AfD policy paper agreed in a vote by 2,400 members at the party congress in the western city of Stuttgart. The said paper demanded bans on minarets on mosques, the muezzin call to prayers, and full-face veils for women and female headscarves in schools.
In addition, the AfD is presenting itself as a nationalistic conservative force that also questions climate change, promotes traditional gender roles, and family values would reintroduce military conscription and take Germany out of the Euro.
On the other hand, a proposal for a more nuanced formulation to stop Islamism but seek dialogue with Islam was rejected in a male dominated gathering. The gathering was held in a hall decorated with banners that read "Courage. Truth. Germany," Masress has learned.
Supporters of AfD only stood at 14% and running as Germany's 3rd strongest party in weekend opinion polls. The nationalist party has allegedly distanced itself from the far-right and neo-Nazi movements which are stubbornly persistent in a country where collective shame over the Nazi era and Holocaust run deep, Irish Times has learned.
Formed 3 years ago on a eurosceptic platform, the AfD has gained strength as the loudest protest voice against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcome to refugees that brought over 1 million asylum seekers last year, many from Syria. With the migrant influx sharply down in the recent months, the AfD has shifted focus to the signature issue of the xenophobic Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West [Occident] (PEGIDA).
