German Measures

From the BBC:

"Germany: Burka ban to be proposed in security clampdown"

Germany's interior minister will back plans to ban the burka as part of a raft of anti-terror measures, local media say. Thomas de Maiziere also proposes deporting criminals more quickly and relaxing doctor confidentiality rules. He is due to announce some ideas on Thursday, and back some ideas from ministers in his party next week. There have been repeated attacks in German cities recently, some of them related to Islamist terror. In July, an axe-wielding teenager from Afghanistan injured five people on a train in Wuerzburg before he was shot dead by police. The same month, a failed asylum seeker from Syria killed himself and injured 15 people when he set off a bomb outside a music festival in Ansbach. Both attacks were claimed by the so-called Islamic State group.  The burka is a strict Muslim veil for women that covers the full head and body. Not many people in Germany wear it. Burka bans exist in other parts of Europe, notably France, Belgium and some towns in Italy.  On Thursday, Mr de Maiziere is expected to announce the plans for speeding up the deportation process, making being a "threat to public security" grounds for deporting migrants, and relaxing doctors' confidentiality obligations. Next week, he is expected to back a series of measures being considered by a grouping of German states' interior ministers from within his own Christian Democrat party and its Bavarian sister party.

The ministers propose:

• banning the burka
• stopping German people from being allowed to hold dual nationality
• recruiting 15,000 more police officers by 2020
• posting more police on trains and in transport hubs
• making it more difficult for extremist organisations to finance mosques
• deporting foreign hate preachers

German law requires non-EU citizens to give up their existing nationality when applying for German citizenship. Mr de Maiziere says the terror threat to Germany is high. "We live in difficult times," he said on Wednesday. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, a fellow Christian Democrat, has previously said information sharing should be ramped up in the wake of the attacks on Germany this summer.

^ I completely agree that the burqa should be illegal to wear out in public (not just in Germany or Europe, but the US, Canada, etc.) When you travel to a Muslim country you are expected to, and most often forced, adhere to their strict dress codes so why shouldn't the same measures be applied to other countries? The part of the new proposal in Germany I don't agree with is not allowing Germans to hold dual citizenship. Having another nationality doesn't make you a terrorist. I am a dual Canadian-American (or American-Canadian.) We talk about how the world is much smaller nowadays and how easy it is to travel, etc. so holding a second nationality (especially if it is through birth and not naturalization) is very common. Germany has never liked dual nationality and it has nothing to do with terrorism, but their belief that being German is above all other nationalities (Canada had a similar belief until they changed their laws in the 1970s and started allowing dual nationalities.) If someone is considered a native-born German and a native-born citizen of another country they should be allowed to have the same rights as every other native-born citizen. If someone becomes a naturalized citizen that is a little different. So, Germany should ban the burqa in public, add more police and use the police more in public places, but allow dual nationality. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37033286