Germany’s anti-Islam political party’s leader embraces Islam

News Network
January 25, 2018

In a curious development, a prominent leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a political party known for its racist and islamophobic tendencies, has converted to Islam and resigned from his position with the party.

Arthur Wagner, a leading member of the far-right party in Germany's eastern German state of Brandenburg, stepped down for "personal reasons", a party spokesperson confirmed, according to state broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Wagner, who has been a member of the party since 2015, refused to comment to Tagesspiegel, the daily newspaper that first broke the news of his conversion. "That's my private business," he told the daily.

On the party's Brandenburg state committee, Wagner's work focused on churches and faith communities, according to Deutsche Welle.

The AfD has campaigned against refugees and migrants and made history when it won 12.6 percent of the vote in federal elections in September 2017, entering the Bundestag for the first time.

The party became the third largest party in the Bundestag.

The news sparked derision on social media, with many Twitter users pointing to the irony of Wagner converting to Islam after being a high-ranking member of a party that has railed against the presence of Muslims in Germany.

Emily Dische-Becker said: "Creeping Sharia picks up speed as politician from Germany's islamophobic AfD converts to Islam." Mark Berry said: "I really don't understand Nazis."

Originally founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic party, the AfD took the lead as the most aggressive anti-refugee voice in the country while nearly a million asylum seekers arrived in Germany in 2015.

In the party's first bill since its electoral success in September, the AfD proposed amending Germany's Residence Act by barring refugees from bringing their relatives from the war-ravaged countries they fled.

Earlier this month, Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the AfD's parliamentary group, was blocked from Facebook and Twitter after publishing Islamophobic posts criticising police for posting Arabic-language updates on New Year's Eve.

She had written: "What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping hordes of Muslim men?"

The party has also sought to ban the construction of mosques in Germany. 

In March 2016, the party's Bavaria branch published a policy statement calling for an end to the "construction and operation" of mosques in the region, Deutsche Welle reported at the time. 

In February of that year, then party leader Petry Frauke sparked outrage when she proclaimed that German border guards should "use fire arms if necessary" in order to prevent "illegal border crossings" by refugees and migrants. 

In April 2016, the AfD's Alexander Gauland proclaimed that Germany must remain "a Christian country" and "Islam is a foreign entity". 

The rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric has also coincided with a spike in violence against asylum seekers. The German interior ministry documented 3,533 attacks on refugees and their accommodations - nearly 10 a day - in 2016.

Comments

TomCat
 - 
Wednesday, 21 Feb 2018

Many men want to embrace Islam cause want to marry again, and can marry up to four wives. Criminality made legal. 

ABDUL AZIZ S.A
 - 
Thursday, 15 Feb 2018

Alhamdulillah

 

this is the example and truth of Islam , the more  someone hate Islam ,Islam will grow faster ,and people will understand the islam religion,

THINKERS
 - 
Thursday, 25 Jan 2018

Alhamdullillah... Thanks to Allah...

Many people try to demonize ISLAM without knowledge. When they learn ISLAM is the means of this life. They want to follow the religion of ONE GOD who is worthy of Worship... When we are honest in searching for God, Just says The one who put soul in me Please Guide me to TRUTH. Have trust and U will definetely SEE The truth and understand the world clearly.

Abu Muhammad
 - 
Thursday, 25 Jan 2018

For us Muslims this is neither new nor surprising news as we have example of Hazrat Umar (RA) who was a different man before (fierce enemy of Islam) and after (supreme leader of Islam) he revert to Islam.

 

Surah MUMTAHANA (60) Ayat (7) Allah says - ..Allah will establish Friendship between you and those whom Ye hold as enemies. For Allah has power (over all things); and Allah is oft-forgiving, most merciful".

 

Here is a great lesson for enemies of God and Islam

سيد
 - 
Thursday, 25 Jan 2018

الحمد لله...................

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Agencies
June 19,2020

New Delhi, Jun 19: Delhi minister Satyendar Jain's health has deteriorated further. He is infected with the coronavirus. Jain has also been diagnosed with pneumonia. He is being shifted to an ICU.  According to doctors, Jain is now kept full-time on oxygen support as his oxygen saturation level has dipped.  

Jain was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital early Tuesday after running high fever and suffering a sudden drop in oxygen level. The 55-year-old leader's test result came positive on Wednesday evening after a second test. Jain was brought to the hospital and was administered a test for the novel coronavirus infection on Tuesday morning, for which he tested negative. But he still ran fever and showed symptoms, so another test was done after 24 hours of the first.

He will now be shifted Max Hospital in Saket and administered plasma therapy. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also wished for Jain's speedy recovery.

On Thursday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia took over the charge of health, PWD, power and other departments held by Jain. Jain will remain the cabinet minister without any portfolio in the Arvind Kejriwal government until he recovers. 

On Sunday, Jain attended a high-level meeting on the coronavirus situation in the national capital, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, which was also attended by Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

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News Network
May 27,2020

Muzaffarpur, May 27: A toddler's vain attempt to wake up his dead mother from eternal sleep on a railway platform in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Wednesday presented the most poignant picture of the massive migrant tragedy unfolding across several states.

A video tweeted by Sanjay Yadav, an aide to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, shows the child walking unsteadily up to his mother's body, tugging at the blanket placed over her, and when failing to wake her up, covering his own head with it.

As the mother still lay still, he wobbles away from her, announcements continuing in the background about the arrival and departure of trains that would bring in tens of thousands of people in a rush to get away from hunger and hardship they face in large cities that could sustain them no more.

"This small child doesn't know that the bedsheet with which he is playing is the shroud of his mother who has gone into eternal sleep. This mother died of hunger and thirst after being on a train for four days. Who is responsible for these deaths on trains? Shouldn't the opposition ask uncomfortable questions?" tweeted Yadav.

However, police had a different story to tell.

Ramakant Upadhyay, the Dy SP of the Government Railway Police in Muzaffarpur, said the incident occurred on May 25 when the migrant woman was on way to Muzaffarpur from Ahmedabad by a Shramik Special train.

He told reporters the woman, who was accompanied by her sister and brother-in-law, had died on the Madhubani bound train.

"My sister-in-law died suddenly on the train. We did not face any problem getting food or water," the officer said, quoting the deceased's brother-in-law who he did not name.

He said on getting information, poice brought down the body and sent it for postmortem.

Citing the brother-in-law of the deceased, Upadhyay said she was aged 35 years and was undergoing treatment for "some disease" for the last one year in Ahmedabad. "She was also mentally unstable," he said.

When persistently queried about the cause of death, he said,"Only doctors can tell".

A massive exodus of migrant workers is on in several parts of the country, unprecedented in magnitude since Partition.

The humanitarian crisis still unfolding on highways and railway platforms has shone light on disturbing tales of entire families walking hundreds of kilometres with little children on foot in a seemingly endless march to escape hunger.

People have been found travelling on trucks and in the hollow of concrete mixing plants, and in many cases, dying from hunger and exhaustion before reaching their destinations.

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News Network
January 22,2020

Davos, Jan 22: President Donald Trump has said that the US is watching the developments between India and Pakistan over Kashmir "very closely" and repeated his offer to "help" resolve the longstanding dispute between the two neighbours as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum here in the Swiss ski resort.

Addressing the media with the Pakistan Prime Minister prior to their private meeting on Tuesday, President Trump asserted that trade and borders were both critical points for discussion, while Khan said that for him, Afghanistan was the top priority.

Trump told Khan, whom he referred to as "my friend", that he would speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the ongoing Kashmir issue. The US president is expected to visit India in the coming weeks, marking his first visit after taking up his post in the White House.

"What's going on between Pakistan and India … if we can help, we certainly will be willing to. We have been watching it very closely and it's an honour to be here with my friend," he said.

"The Pakistan-India conflict is a very big issue for us in Pakistan and we expect the US to always play its part in deescalating the tensions, because no other country can," Khan said.

President Trump has repeatedly offered to mediate following India's August 5 decision to revoke the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two Union Territories, evoking strong reaction from Pakistan which has been trying to internationalise the Kashmir issue.

New Delhi has defended the move, saying Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and the issue was strictly internal to the country, and the special status provisions only gave rise to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The country took the decision of abrogation of Article 370, which had only given separatism and terrorism to that state," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a function in October last year.

This is the third meeting between Trump and Khan since Pakistan premier assumed office in 2018 and it came against the backdrop of Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's recent trip to the US, amid reports that the US and Afghan Taliban were close to striking a peace deal.

"There are issues we want to talk about. The main issue is Afghanistan because it concerns the US and Pakistan. Fortunately, we are on the same page. Both of us are interested in peace there and an orderly transition in Afghanistan with talks with Taliban and the government," Khan said.

When a reporter asked Trump if he would visit Pakistan considering he was already set to visit India, the US president said he was meeting the Pakistan premier in Davos.

"Well, we're visiting right now. So we don't really have to. I wanted to say that from a relationship standpoint, we got a great relationship. From the standpoint our two countries, we're getting along very well. I would say we've never been closer with Pakistan the way we're right now. And this is a big statement," Trump said.

Khan left for Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum and meet the world leaders, including President Trump, on the sidelines of the annual event which kicked off at the ski resort town of Davos on Tuesday.

The four-day summit marks the 50th anniversary of the forum.

A total of 53 heads of State are on the guest list. Nearly 3,000 participants from 118 countries are expected to attend the event during which political leaders, business executives, heads of international organisations and civil society representatives are set to deliberate on contemporary economic, geopolitical, social and environmental issues.

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