Hurtful provocation

The criticism of Germany's integration policy may be justified, writes the daily Der Kurier, but it shouldn't be expressed in such an offensive way as in the book by German Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin: "Most of what Sarrazin says is familiar. He has stated the facts, exaggerating them slightly, put them together and drawn his own conclusions: The politicians - not only in Germany - are deluding themselves about the problems of Muslim immigration for ideological reasons. And therefore putting the future at risk. Even if most experts agree with his findings (not his dramatic conclusions) Sarrazin will remain a largely ignored alerter of whom there are plenty more academically serious than him. ... The media storm that ensued after cleverly chosen excerpts of Sarrazin's book were published in [German media] Spiegel and Bild proves that it's time for an honest discussion. And open society (and not only the SPD, as its highest party court concluded) must be equal to this, and even needs it. But it doesn't need offensive provocations hurled from a position of lofty comfort and out of intellectual vanity."

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