Germany: Migration Deal Keeps Merkel in Power, For Now

by Soeren Kern • July 4, 2018 at 5:00 am

"No country in the world can take in refugees indefinitely. Successful integration can only succeed with a limitation of immigration. This is the core message of the coalition agreement...." — Introduction to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer's 63-point "Migration Masterplan," leaked to the public on July 2, 2018.
"There is a pattern to European Union summits about subjects on which governments cannot agree. First, leaders stay up all night to signal their commitment. Second, they issue a statement sufficiently vague and contradictory to allow everyone to declare victory. Third, officials charged with implementing the agreement argue endlessly over how to interpret it...." — The Economist.
"The summit communique may say that the issue is one for Europe 'as a whole,' but the practical reality is that differences were papered over, not resolved." — The Guardian.

Still in charge, for now. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) has acquiesced to the demand of Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (left) to reinstate border controls with Austria, in order to save the alliance between Merkel's and Seehofer's political parties and secure the near-term continuity of Merkel's government. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

In an extraordinary last-minute reversal, Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing the imminent collapse of her coalition government, agreed late on July 2 to reinstate border controls with Austria.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had threatened to resign from Merkel's cabinet unless she agreed to a plan by July 3 to reduce so-called irregular secondary movements. The plan to which Merkel agreed entails holding refugees at detention camps to be established along Germany's southern border, the main gateway for refugees to the country, and turning back those who have already claimed asylum in other EU countries.

Seehofer's resignation would have called into question the continued viability of a 70-year-alliance between Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and his Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble warned that the two parties were "standing on the abyss."

Continue Reading Article

Indonesia: Falling to Radicals

by Lawrence A. Franklin • July 4, 2018 at 4:30 am

If Indonesia's repatriated foreign fighters have their way, all of the country's churches will be destroyed.
If the repatriated foreign fighters are able to radicalize Indonesia's Muslims, all of the country may eventually resemble Aceh Province, where, after a lengthy reign of terror by Islamic militias, most Christians have been driven out.

Pictured: A woman receives a public caning in Aceh, Indonesia -- a sentence for spending time with a man who is not her husband, which is a violation of Sharia law. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

An Indonesian family of six, repatriated from former Islamic State (ISIS)-controlled territory in Syria, separately targeted three Christian sites in Surabaya, Indonesia, in May. The suicide bombings killed at least 11 people, as well as all of the attacking family members. Indonesian authorities suspect the bombers are affiliated with Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), the Congregation of the Islamic State. While anti-Christian incidents are common in majority-Muslim Indonesia, until now, suicide bombings by Islamists were not often seen there.

The same day, May 14, a second family, affiliated with the same terrorist JAD cell, also staged a suicide attack at Surabaya's police headquarters. A third family was killed in a town outside Surabaya when bombs prematurely exploded inside their home. All three families met regularly for radical Islamic religious sessions.

Continue Reading Article

Fourth of July Message

July 4, 2018 at 4:00 am

(Image source: Historical Society of Pennsylvania/Wikimedia Commons)

Gatestone Institute would like to thank our founding fathers for the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the limitless freedoms and opportunities they set out.

Continue Reading Article