The parliamentary group leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has sparked a divisive debate after he said a Muslim could be a future CDU leader and chancellor of Germany.



Asked by media outlet Idea if a Muslim could lead the party and become chancellor in 2030, Ralph Brinkhaus said: "Why not, if they're a good politician, and they represent our values and our political views?"

The interview took place in late February, but it stirred a backlash only after Bild, Germany's biggest tabloid newspaper, reported on it on Wednesday.

Read more: Is Islam changing Germany?

Shock and horror among CDU colleagues

"For the love of God, I can't believe Ralph Brinkhaus said that," Vincent Kokert, the CDU's chief in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, told the paper. "No, I can't believe it."

Elisabeth Motschmann, a member of the CDU's executive board, dismissed Brinkhaus' view that Islam was compatible with the party's values.

"The values of Islam are very different from our values — for example, when it comes to questions of equal rights for men and women," she said.

Read more: Muslims 'integrate' well into Germany but aren't accepted

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Prominent Muslim politicians in Europe Serving France and Europe France has the largest number of Muslims in the Western world, and Islam is the second-largest religion in the country by numbers. But the proportion of Muslim politicians remains relatively small. Rachida Dati is one Muslim who has reached the highest echelons of French politics, serving as justice minister from 2007-2009. She is currently a Member of the European Parliament.

Prominent Muslim politicians in Europe A recent convert Dutch politician Joram van Klaveren was long a hard-line critic of Islam, campaigning against the religion as a lawmaker for the Party for Freedom (PVV). But he suddenly announced that he had converted to the faith while writing an anti-Islam book. His former political leader Geert Wilders, himself a vehement Islam critic, said the conversion was like a vegetarian taking a job in a slaughterhouse.

Prominent Muslim politicians in Europe A highly popular mayor in the Netherlands ... Ahmed Aboutaleb became mayor of the Dutch city of Rotterdam in 2009. He is the first immigrant mayor in the Netherlands. He has been outspoken in his criticism of Muslims who come to the West but oppose the freedom of speech espoused there. In 2015, he was voted the most popular Dutch politician in a poll for news agency ANP.

Prominent Muslim politicians in Europe ... and in Britain Sadiq Khan has been the mayor of London since 2016, having been a Labour MP from 2005 to 2016. Ahead of the Brexit referendum, he was a prominent campaigner for Britain to remain in Europe and has also supported equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. Khan won the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards in 2016. He is a practicing Muslim who regularly attends mosque.

Prominent Muslim politicians in Europe A 'secular Muslim' in Germany German politician Cem Özdemir has been one of the most prominent faces of the Green party for years, serving as its co-chair between 2008 and 2018. Among other things, he opposes the accession of Turkey, his parents' homeland, to the EU while it is under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He describes himself as a "secular Muslim" and has campaigned for the legalization of cannabis. Author: Timothy Jones



Lawmaker: Muslims can't become chancellor

Brinkhaus told Idea that people's values were more important than their religion when deciding on their leadership qualities.

"The CDU is not a religious community — that is what distinguishes us from the Catholic Church," he said.

But some lawmakers said the party's name needed to be taken seriously. "The 'C' in the party name wasn't chosen arbitrarily," CDU lawmaker Eberhard Gienger told Bild.

Gienger also dismissed that a Muslim could ever be German chancellor, regardless of party affiliation.

"Having a Muslim chancellor would imply that Muslims would constitute the majority in Germany," he said. "This is not the case."

Read more: Seehofer tells Islam conference Muslims are a part of Germany

Germany's major political parties — What you need to know Christian Democratic Union (CDU) The CDU has traditionally been the main center-right party across Germany, but it shifted toward the center under Chancellor Angela Merkel. The party remains more fiscally and socially conservative compared to parties on the left. It supports membership of the EU and NATO, budgetary discipline at home and abroad and generally likes the status quo. It is the largest party in the Bundestag.

Germany's major political parties — What you need to know Christian Social Union (CSU) The CSU is the sister party of the CDU in Bavaria and the two act symbiotically at the national level (CDU/CSU). Despite their similarities, the CSU is generally more conservative than the CDU on social issues. The CSU leader and premier of Bavaria, Markus Söder, ordered crosses in every state building in 2018.

Germany's major political parties — What you need to know Social Democrats (SPD) The SPD is Germany's oldest political party and the main center-left rival of the CDU/CSU. It shares the CDU/CSU support for the EU and NATO, but it takes a more progressive stance on social issues and welfare policies. It is currently in a coalition government with the CDU/CSU and is trying to win back support under interim leaders Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, Manuela Schwesig and Malu Dreyer.

Germany's major political parties — What you need to know Alternative for Germany (AfD) The new kid on the block is the largest opposition party in the Bundestag. The far-right party was founded in 2013 and entered the Bundestag for the first time in 2017 under the stewardship of Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland. It is largely united by opposition to Merkel's immigration policy, euroscepticism, and belief in the alleged dangers posed by Germany's Muslim population.

Germany's major political parties — What you need to know Free Democrats (FDP) The FDP has traditionally been the kingmaker of German politics. Although it has never received more than 15 percent of the vote, it has formed multiple coalition governments with both the CDU/CSU and SPD. The FDP, today led by Christian Lindner, supports less government spending and lower taxes, but takes a progressive stance on social issues such as gay marriage or religion.

Germany's major political parties — What you need to know The Greens The Greens, led today by Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, emerged from the environmental movement in the 1980s. Unsuprisingly, it supports efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment. It is also progressive on social issues. But strong divisions have occasionally emerged on other topics. The party famously split in the late 1990s over whether to use military force in Kosovo.

Germany's major political parties — What you need to know The Left The Left, led by Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger, is the most left-wing party in the Bundestag. It supports major redistribution of wealth at home and a pacifist stance abroad, including withdrawing Germany from NATO. It emerged from the successor party to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that ruled communist East Germany until 1989. Today, it still enjoys most of its support in eastern Germany. Author: Alexander Pearson



'Completely idiotic' debate

But some CDU lawmakers defended Brinkhaus' comments.

"Are you being serious? To say anything other than what Brinkhaus said doesn't belong in a mainstream party or one that takes the constitution seriously," Serap Güler, the only Muslim member of the CDU's executive board, wrote on Twitter.

Karin Prien, the education minister in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, also said she saw no good reason why being a Christian was a necessary qualification for becoming party chief or chancellor.

The CDU's center-left coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), dismissed the entire debate as "completely idiotic."

"All these identity debates are conducted only in the CDU," the SPD's deputy leader, Ralf Stegner, told the Saarbrücker Zeitung newspaper. "They have nothing to do with the real problems in Germany."

amp/sms (dpa, KNA)

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