Ralph Brinkhaus, the parliamentary group leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), embroiled himself in a scandal this week when he answered a delicate question about the prospect of Germany being led by a Muslim chancellor a decade from now.
Speaking to Idea, a local evangelical Christian news outlet, back in February, Brinkhaus said he didn’t see any problem with a Muslim being Germany’s leader.
While they received little initial media attention, the senior CDU official’s comments would spark an explosion of debate this week after Bild, one of Germany’s largest newspapers, ran a story with the headline “Brinkhaus can imagine Muslim as CDU Chancellor”.
A few CDU politicians defended the parliamentary group leader, however. Serap Guler, a Muslim CDU lawmaker from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, slammed Brinkhaus’s critics, arguing that “to say anything other than what Brinkhaus said doesn’t belong in a mainstream party or one that takes the constitution seriously.””The CDU is not called the ‘Good Political Party’ or the ‘Values and Views’ Party, but the ‘Christian Democratic Union’. The word ‘Christian’ represents not only a moral value, but also faith – in Jesus Christ. This may not sound hip, but that’s the way it is,” Bocking wrote. “And every Muslim would agree: although Jesus is considered a prophet in Islam, Muslims do not share Christians’ faith in him as the Saviour and Son of God, which is the core of Christianity,” he added.
The debate continued on Twitter, with many users lambasting Brinkhaus and suggesting that it may be time for him to resign from the CDU. Others worried that a Muslim as chancellor would result in Germany’s Basic Law being replaced with Sharia law, or argued that at the rate the Muslim population of Germany was increasing, the prospects of a Muslim chancellor were very high as it is.
Others failed to see the problem, or even praising Brinkhaus for his refreshing tone. “Only when we no longer think about which denomination or religion a candidate belongs to will we develop further,” one user argued.