“German Culture Is Disappearing”

JLH has has translated a media interview with a female Turkish-German author from Berlin. The translator includes this note:

This is a short but interesting interview from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. It sets in sharp relief the difference in the immigrants before the invasion of the mullahs and afterwards, and explains why so many mature and older immigrant women are not only apostate, but willing to shout it from the rooftops.

And the translated interview:

“German Basic Values Are Disappearing”

Turkish woman author, Güner Balci

by Gordana Mijuk

NZZ Sunday: Why is Germany now speaking about the problem of the integration of immigrants?

Güner Balci: Apparently people have suddenly become aware that there is a group of people in Germany that has not of itself adapted to German society and adopted its values. People see that this group has pulled back into its own culture and its own religion and that there are more and more points of friction with German society. For instance, in school where it suddenly becomes noticeable that there is no gender equality among Muslim pupils. Or that a majority of Muslim children are touched by domestic violence, which is not proscribed in their community.

NZZ: Why did Thilo Sarrazin’s book cause such a turmoil? You addressed the same subject in your novels “Arab Boy” and now “Arab Queen.”

GB: Because people immediately like to hammer away at someone who makes a mistake — and Sarrazin made big mistakes in his book. Now the sow is being driven through the village and everyone is running along behind. It is simpler to say: that is wrong, than to differentiate and debate with it. I am afraid the subject will not endure in public, because it is not seen as an accepted problem in Germany.

NZZ: You grew up in Neukölln and then worked with young people as a social worker. What has changed?

GB: It seems to me that German culture is disappearing more and more. By that I mean the basic values: equal rights and above all the self-determined life of women. When I grew up here, I had a mixed environment — not just East Anatolian villagers all around me. Living-among-your-own and a lifestyle shaped by traditional ideas has increased. Islam plays an increasingly important role, precisely for the young people. That was not true in my time. Nor was the fundamentalist Islam that is demanded from the many mosques. The biggest problem is that half-truths are often spread.

NZZ: What motivated you to write books about Neukölln’s young immigrants?

GB: When I meet women who cannot lead self-determined lives, that shocks me. I feel my existence threatened when it is natural in a society for men to decide about women. It is depressing for me that women have to live in such a sick world. It chokes me up.
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