News & Comment
Frauke Petry - Germany’s Most Dangerous Woman

News

The leader of Germany’s main right-wing, anti-migrant party has caused political uproar by insisting that the country’s border police should be authorised to shoot at refugees trying to enter the country illegally.

Frauke Petry, the 40-year-old leader of Germany’s, once merely Eurosceptic but now increasingly xenophobic party, “Alternative for Germany” (AfD), made her controversial demands after addressing a political meeting in Hanover at the weekend.

“Police must stop migrants crossing illegally from Austria,” Ms Petry told the Mannheimer Morgen Newspaper. “And, if necessary, use firearms. That is what the law says.” She added, “I don’t want this either, but the use of armed force is there as a last resort.”

Her remarks were the most extreme political response so far by a substantial political figure to mounting public dissatisfaction with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “open door” refugee policy and growing anxiety at the unprecedented influx of refugees and other migrants. More than 1.1 million migrants entered Germany in 2015 – the majority arriving since September. A poll issued last week showed that 40 per cent of Germans now wanted Ms Merkel to resign.

The AfD is attracting growing support for its vitriolic anti-migrant stance. It has already won seats in five of Germany’s state parliaments and, in elections next month, is also on course to win seats in the state parliaments of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony Anhalt, where polls suggest the party could win 15 per cent of the vote.

Comment

After Presidential candidate Ted Cruz singled out ‘New York’ values in the 5th Republican debate, commentators noted that 9/11 sympathy had officially ended for the iconic city, after a mere 15 years. In Europe another milestone was passed as 70 years since the fall of Nazi Germany, rightwing fascism is once again on the rise, with the leader of the AfD, Frauke Petry calling for the shooting of refugees at German borders.

Whilst this can be easily criticized on numerous fronts, such as the lack of basic humanity, one would hope any rational individual held the absolutism of the right as far more worrying as they change the political discourse to a single dimensional one, with one solution alone. This is epitomized as Petry calls for the shooting of refugees, rather than better organizational systems that could make the management of refugees easier. In the UK, the Right call for the end to all foreign aid, rather than solutions to making aid more efficient and effective. In the US, Donald Trump calls for a ban on Muslims and a wall along the Mexican border rather than stronger and more effectual bureaucratic systems.

As Muslims when we face a problem we should not superficially pluck solutions out of the air, as the Right continue to do, and nor should we, like the Left, operate policies that may be commendable but are ineffective and unpopular. As Muslims we should not see ourselves as part of the left or right, but part of the Islamic movement for the true Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah (Caliphate) that with a basis of Quran and Sunnah will perfectly provide solutions to the problems faced around the world. That will allow a response that is understood and supported by the masses and well as successful in its attempts to make the world a just place.

As Allah (swt) says in Surah Maidah verse 49:

وَأَنِ احْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ اللّهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءهُمْ وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَن يَفْتِنُوكَ عَن بَعْضِ مَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ إِلَيْكَ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْاْ فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللّهُ أَن يُصِيبَهُم بِبَعْضِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ النَّاسِ لَفَاسِقُونَ

“And so judge (you O Muhammad SAW) between them by what Allah has revealed and follow not their vain desires, but beware of them lest they turn you (O Muhammad SAW) far away from some of that which Allah has sent down to you. And if they turn away, then know that Allah's Will is to punish them for some sins of theirs. And truly, most of men are Fasiqun (rebellious and disobedient to Allah).”

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Maleeha Hasan