After the Frankfurt conference on migration policy, at which Tübingen's Lord Mayor Boris Palmer caused a scandal with several statements, a group of authors, politicians and academics has turned against calls to close the Research Center on Global Islam. Susanne Schröter, the director of the center, had defended Palmer's invitation, which was widely criticized, before the event. After Palmer's remarks at the conference, she regretted this invitation.
Martin Ochmann
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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According to the 585 signatories of the statement, including author and management consultant Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate and former Federal Minister Kristina Schröder (CDU), Schröter was "insulted and defamed in a criminal manner." Those who called for the closure of the research center are concerned that "critics of political Islamism and current migration policy are finally silenced." Palmer's remarks served only as a pretext. The signatories call on politicians and the university to defend Schröter.
Among other things, Palmer had used the N-word several times before and during the conference and countered protesters at the door by saying that their accusations that he was a Nazi because of this choice of words were "nothing more than a Jewish star." After the scandal, he resigned from the Greens and announced a "time-out". The N-word stands for "Negro", which has been considered discriminatory since slavery and völkisch racial doctrine. The Duden advises against the use of the word therefore.