“We have to talk openly about failures in integration”

by time news

What next after Brokstedt’s knife attack? Markus Lanz discussed controversially the precarious situation of the judiciary and the weaknesses of the rule of law.

The German-Egyptian Islam critic Hamed Abdel Samad took part in the discussion with Markus Lanz.

The German-Egyptian Islam critic Hamed Abdel Samad took part in the discussion with Markus Lanz.imago stock&people

In the discussion about the events of New Year’s Eve, the term integration was often invoked. Some regarded what they associate with the word as a failure. Others shouted back: “Integrate yourself.” It was striking that the terms “they” and “we” were used in different ways – integration as a norm that had to be met, missed due to the situation or as an attitude towards social interaction altogether can generally be rejected.

It would probably be more realistic to understand integration as a permanent challenge that predictably or suddenly puts the individual to the test wherever he meets other people. Anyone who enters a train as a passenger integrates themselves as a passenger in one way or another, and anyone who drives a car or bicycle has to carry out integration services on the basis of the road traffic regulations. So where do the problems with the term come from?

“An explosion of violence will not take place”

One of those problems is characterized by violence, most recently perpetrated in harrowing ways on a train in Brokstedt, northern Germany. Two young people died after a knife attack. What, Markus Lanz asked in his ZDF talk show on Wednesday, happens if the crime has already happened? What can the suspected criminals expect?

The first thing they encounter is the perplexed reaction of those responsible in the judiciary and in politics. Not without bitterness, the statement by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was recorded shortly after the crime became known, in which she asked how it was possible that a violent offender with such a criminal record could have been released from a prison. Deportation, repatriation, subsidiary tolerance were terms that followed in hasty diction.