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Hans-Peter Friedrich with Angela Merkel in January AP Photo/dapd, Steffi Loos
Germany
Germany's new interior minister says Islam does not belong in the country
The minister has come under fire for comments that were in response to this week’s shooting dead of two US soldiers at Frankfurt airport.
GERMANY’S NEW INTERIOR Minister has sparked a row after claiming that Islam does not belong in the country.
Hans-Peter Friedrich, who took office this week, was responding to a questions about this week’s gun attack at Frankfurt airport in which two US soldiers were killed by a suspected radical Muslim, according to The Guardian.
In his first press conference, Friedrich said that whilst Muslims should be allowed to live in modern Germany, he added:
To say that Islam belongs in Germany is not a fact supported by history.
He was immediately criticised by other German politicians including justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger who insisted that “of course Islam belongs in Germany.”
Friedrich was appointed to his new post in a reshuffle by Chancellor Angela Merkel which was sparked by the resignation of Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Tuesday after he was found to have plagiarised his PhD thesis.
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