Julia Klöckner lost her temper on one issue

t-online

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David Heisig

Updated on 07.06.2018

Reading time: 3 min.

Jan Fleischhauer, Bettina Gaus, Sandra Maischberger, Julia Klöckner, Haluk Yildiz and Necla Kelek (lr) discuss Islam. (Source: WDR/Max Kohr)

With the TV film "Submission" based on the novel by Michel Houellebecq, Das Erste once again opened up the Islam debate on Wednesday evening. The heated debate continued afterwards with Sandra Maischberger.

The guests

• Julia Klöckner (CDU), deputy federal chairwoman
• Bettina Gaus, Journalist
• Necla Kelek, Author
• Haluk Yildiz, chairman of the BIG party
• Jan Fleischhauer, journalist

The Fronts

The starting point of the talk was – as Maischberger called it – Houellebecq's "disturbing vision" of a Western society that is gradually becoming Islamized by a Muslim president. Maischberger asked the initial question of whether this fiction could become reality in Germany. "I am not afraid of Islamization in Germany," Klöckner emphasized. Fundamentalist tendencies must be countered with integration in the middle. Neither the fear of the downfall of the Christian West nor the Islamophobia cudgel fit in with this.

However, the Union politician drew a red line: accepting an intolerant image of women while taking cultural diversity into account is ignorant. For this she received applause from Necla Kelek. The Islam critic stressed that Islam is a religion of the subjugation of women. The journalists' bench with Bettina Gaus and Jan Fleischhauer, which was placed on the left in the studio from the audience's perspective, played more of a mediating role.

Bad schools not the fault of Muslims

Fleischauer reassured that he did not see any creeping Islamization in Germany. The fear in parts of society was caused by the dwindling interest in Christianity. People were simply astonished that Muslims "still believe in something". Gaus said that any conversation about worldview and religion could create fear and terror. One should not condemn Islam across the board. New text

from Focus

On Wednesday evening, the topic of Islam was once again on "Maischberger". A particularly controversial guest: Haluk Yildiz, head of the Alliance for Innovation and Justice party. He clashed violently with Julia Klöckner when he justified imams refusing to shake women's hands.

The topic promised to be explosive: "The Islam debate: Where does tolerance end?" asked Sandra Maischberger on Wednesday. Among the guests were CDU vice-chair Julia Klöckner and Haluk Yildiz, chairman of the migrant party BIG. Things got particularly heated when Yildiz made statements. He said: "In Islam, it is considered disrespectful when a man shakes a woman's hand." An imam once refused to shake Julia Klöckner's hand. Yildiz justified this by saying that "the ritual washing for the next prayer is often invalid." These words made Klöckner lose her temper.

In reality, there is a very specific gender image behind it, and that is not compatible with the Basic Law, Klöckner continued. Haluk Yildiz is the federal chairman of the small party "Alliance for Innovation and Justice". The party is committed to equal opportunities for and the integration of migrants "while preserving its own diverse identity", as it says in its election manifesto. The BIG party is said to be close to Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP. Nevzat Yalcintas, one of the founders of the AKP, appeared at a BIG election campaign event and canvassed for votes.

Did the editors want to avert a shitstorm?

June 7, 2018, 2:20 amReading time: 3 min

The issue was originally supposed to be about the question "Are we too tolerant of Islam?" Anyone who thinks that the editors wanted to avert an impending shitstorm is a scoundrel. To be clear: both topics - refugees on Plasberg and Islam on Maischberger - are worth discussing. But in both cases the thematic focus already suggested how the discussion would go. "In the case of the program titles, the chain of associations is: refugees, inability to integrate, insecurity," explains political and communications consultant Johannes Hillje about the so-called framing mechanism using Plasberg as an example.

A little more sensitivity to the current mood would have done the Maischberger people good. Their approach was thoughtless at best, and calculatedly provocative at worst. Harsh criticism and malice on the internet followed promptly - despite, or perhaps precisely because, the title was slightly toned down at the last minute.

After all, one could have asked: How real is our fear of Islam? Or: Is this fear exaggerated? Or perhaps: How exaggerated is our fear? With a few simple linguistic tricks, it could easily have been a completely different show. But the premise was that from the start: Islam and Germany - we have a problem.

The imam who did not want to shake Klöckner's hand

The discussion was similarly provocative and irreconcilable. Klöckner vehemently defended women's rights ("That is a crude gender image") and abandoned any understanding of the Islamic religion. In the Turkish-born sociologist Necla Kelek she found a like-minded person in her criticism of Islam ("Islam is a master religion"). Both of them argued so loudly with Haluk Yıldız, chairman of the migrant party BIG, that Maischberger had difficulty regaining control of the discussion participants.

It was good that Bettina Gaus was in the group. The taz journalist had stepped in at short notice for the Bavarian SPD leader Natascha Kohnen - she was the best thing that could have happened to Maischberger and the show. She thought all of this was a "superfluous, symbolically charged debate," she said, when the discussion went on and on about how reprehensible it was that an imam did not want to shake hands with CDU member Klöckner. When certain points serve as symbols and stir up mistrust, that is where Islamophobia begins, said Gaus. It is dangerous when inhumane practices that also exist in other cultures and religions are reduced to Islam, such as the circumcision of young girls and women.

Often, when the group got lost in debates about details, Gaus emphasized that she wanted more realism. Especially in comparison to her journalist colleague Jan Fleischhauer from Der Spiegel, Gaus brought understandable arguments - and calm to the charged discussion. Unfortunately, Gaus alone could not save the show.

Talk shows don't even need the AfD to stir up prejudices and false ways of thinking. Because they can easily screw up the way topics are discussed and debated on their own. "Sometimes it seems to me as if there are more Islam experts than Muslims," complained BIG man Yıldız at one point. What was that again about being close to life?