Islam versus Europe

This story is from a couple of months ago. More about the Mhallamiye Kurds to follow.

The schoolyard in the Essen district of Altenessen is not really a place for violent confrontations. At most, between sandboxes, climbing pyramids and slides, there should be wrestling over breaktime snacks. But on the day of Germany Unity, at 3.15 pm, a dispute escalated that perhaps revolved around honour and strength and reputation – and when it was over a 12-year-old had almost killed a 12-year-old.

According to what the investigators have initially learned, several children gathered on the enclosed schoolyard, possibly because of a general feud. "As of now we don’t know whether it was a dispute among children or whether something else was behind it,” said state prosecutor Rainer Kock.

One of the two boys allegedly drew a kitchen knife and stabbed his opponent in the breast. Other witnesses explained to the officials that a 13-year-old had pushed the 12-year-old on to the knife that had been pulled. The victim then had to be taken to hospital in a rescue helicopter, but his life is no longer in danger.

According to SPIEGEL ONLINE’s information, the children are already known to the authorities. Proceedings are already underway against members of the clans they belong to. In this case, the fact that the boys are below the age of criminal responsibility may prove to be a special difficulty in the investigations. They have no consequences to fear under the criminal law. Not least for this reason, the officers consider the family members’ willingness to cooperate to be not especially high.

Because the trails could lead right to the heart of the parallel world of the immigrant clans, who are known to the special police agencies as the so-called Mhallamiye Kurds. These families, who originated in south-east Anatolia, moved to Lebanon in the 30s and 40s as economic refugees.

There, they mostly did not have citizenship, could not work and were reliant on themselves. “The tribal relations they brought with them became even tighter to be able to ensure the survival of the group, and the ghettoisation was extreme,” according to a study by the journalist Ralph Ghadban.

The Mhallamiye Kurds came to Germany as asylum seekers. Their applications were almost uniformly rejected, but because they had no passports or had destroyed them, they could not be expelled from the country – Lebanon didn’t want them, and Turkey certainly didn’t. They received a short-term residence permits but could not work. While other migrants who are employed have contact with professional colleagues, the integration of the Mhallimiye Kurds was hindered because of their prohibition on working.

By 1990, according to a report from the Berlin Crime Prevention Agency, around 15,000 people had come to Germany in this way. They had children, on average seven or eight per family, according to Ghadban. It is estimated that there are now more than 100,000 Mhallamiye Kurds living in Germany. They settled especially in Berlin, Bremen and also in Essen.

Only a minority are criminals. But the “tribal values” the clans brought with them, “stand in total contradiction to the individual values of our democratic system,” writes Ghadban. Unlike many Turkish families, the groups have not even superficially integrated. “Drug-dealing, extortion, theft and robberies help them acquire major wealth,” reports Ghadban. No education is needed for that.

According to an analysis from the Bundeskriminalamts (BKA) [Federal Crime Prevention Agency], the clans are reproducing their “village structures of their home countries” in Germany. They cut themselves off. Many of them are still illiterate. Their own arbitrators regulate disputes. Already in 2004, a BKA committee warned of ethno-groupings that could no longer be controlled.

In Essen a murder commission under the direction of Chief Superintendent Detlef Büttner is now supposed to clarify the background of the bloody dispute. “But I’m not sure,” said one officer, “whether we’ll get very far with it.”

Source: Der Spiegel

See Part 2 here.