Huge criticism of Berlin’s new queer commissioner!
Alfonso Pantisano (48, Social Democratic Party) is responsible for the rights of homosexuals, trans people and other people of the queer community in the Berlin state government.
But: In an interview Pantisano played down homophobia in the Arab and Muslim communities. Now even Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner (50, CDU) intervenes and warns against relativising homophobia.
“We must not make it too easy for ourselves and only point at the others. Homosexuality is not only considered a sin in Islam, but at least as much in the Catholic Church.” There are “just as many Italians or Germans who attack queer people.”
Asked if there was “no particular problem with homophobia” among Arabs and Muslims, Pantisano rebuffed: “The problem is particularly big everywhere.”
► The fact is: Again and again homosexuals as well as trans people are victims of brutal attacks – and the perpetrators often have an Arab or Muslim background.
The deputy head of the German Federal Police Union, Manuel Ostermann (32), told the newspaper BILD: “In Germany, especially in Berlin, violent acts against homosexuals have been reported more and more frequently for years, whose perpetrators have an Arab and/or radical Muslim background.”
▶︎ Like the Chechen Nuradi A. (20), who mobbed two lesbian women on Christopher Street Day in Münster and then beat the trans man Malte C. to death.
▶︎ In September, youths attacked a trans woman in Bremen, hitting her so hard in the face that she had to be taken to hospital. A kiosk saleswoman spoke of a “group of ten to 15 youths, about 14 years old, speaking Kurdish and Arabic”.
▶︎ In 2020, an Islamist attacked a homosexual couple with two knives in Dresden. Thomas L. was fatally wounded, his husband Oliver L. seriously injured. The perpetrator, a Syrian, was sentenced to life in prison.
The ARD TV programme “Report Mainz” published a report as recently as May stating: “New survey shows: Homosexuality and transsexuality are strongly rejected, especially by Muslims.”
According to the poll, 65 per cent of Muslims surveyed agreed with the statement that they find it “disgusting” when homosexuals kiss in public (43 per cent among all respondents). The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution also confirmed to the ARD TV programme that Islamist groups are increasingly openly agitating against homosexuals and transsexuals.
Social Democratic Party (SPD) member Pantisano, who is responsible for the protection of these people in the Berlin state government, apparently does not want to learn anything about this.
► Interior politician Stefan Heck (40, Christian Democratic Union, CDU) is appalled! “In the Muslim communities, aggressive homophobia is unfortunately still the order of the day. Those who play this down are ignoring the problem. Integration also means tolerance for different lifestyles.”
Police unionist Manuel Ostermann explains: “It is not uncommon that intolerance comes precisely from this small but radical community. Where Sharia law is applied, where religion takes precedence over our constitution, that’s exactly where homophobia is very widespread.”
Berlin’s State Secretary for Youth, Falko Liecke (50, CDU), made it clear to BILD: “Of course we also have a problem with homophobic attacks in the Muslim community.” Liecke warns: “To play this down is negligent and does not reflect the realities.”
Explosive: When asked about Pantisano’s statements, Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner told BILD: “Homophobia – no matter from which direction – must not be relativised in any form. Because anyone who relativises homophobia relativises our freedom. Berlin must be safe for all people, no matter how and whom you love.”
It is “part of the successful fight against homophobia” to ” face the realities”, Wegner said and made it clear: “In this sense, the Senate takes a clear stance for a cosmopolitan and tolerant Berlin.”
Lars Lindemann (52), secretary general of the Berlin Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), complains in BILD: “There must not be a finger’s breadth of room for homophobia in our society – no matter what cultural background people come from. If that is not the highest standard for Pantisano, then he is the wrong person in the position of queer commissioner.”
Islam expert Susanne Schröter (65) also considers in BILD that the queer commissioner is making it “too easy”. “Of course, homophobia does not only exist among Muslims, but the extent of violence is clearly different. The experiences of gays and lesbians in hotspot areas should be taken seriously and not relativised with one’s own childhood memories,” says the ethnologist.
