The Islamization of the West begins!!!1einself

No, it doesn't start.

We received inquiries as to whether the following page actually exists in the book by the authors Hesse/Schrader “Test training, police and fire brigade, Bundeswehr: Passing recruitment and aptitude tests successfully”, published by STARK Verlag.

The fact-checking journey began

Step 1:

Inquiries directly to STARK Verlag. Who, if not they, should know better? We didn't have the book yet at the time, even though we also fight for justice and try to save the world a little 🙂

Step 2:

While we waited to hear back from the publisher, we started our own research. On Amazon you can search directly in the book, among other things; the first hits were for the terms Ramadan and Saygi. Both words that should appear much less often in the book compared to “How” or “and”. The first clue revealed: There is this question, but not on page 148 like in the picture we have, but on page 87. Our gut feeling says: "It's better to remain skeptical, you can't refute or prove anything at the moment."

Step 3:

Feedback from the extremely cooperative STARK publishing house, which immediately took the request very seriously. They sent us the following news clipping along with a view of that test page in question (actually on page 148):

Quote (STARK Verlag):

“For you as background information: this involves answering test questions according to the multiple-choice principle, such as those asked in employment tests (e.g. for the police).”

After comparing it with our screenshot, it is clear: the page is 100% identical, but we asked again how the difference we researched in terms of page numbers (87 vs. 148) could come about. STARK Verlag also responded to this and kindly sent us the entire table of contents and also the entire chapter on “Intercultural Competence”.

Behold: The chapter begins on page 84 with an introduction to the various cultural and religious festivals. There is an outline of the peculiarities of the different cultures. On page 148 there is a multiple choice test at the end so that you can independently check what you have learned. STARK Verlag added in another message:

Quote (STARK Verlag):

“From the table of contents you can clearly see that the chapter in question only makes up a small part of the book and in which context it imparts knowledge. Perhaps that would be a good indication that it is not about individual religions in the sense of an “Islamization of the West”, but rather about the inquiry and development of intercultural skills. The chapter begins on page 147 and ends on page 150. We very much regret that the book, which is actually only intended to prepare police applicants for the recruitment test, is being used to incite hate speech within right-wing groups. Best regards, your STARK team”

Conclusion:

This multiple choice test as part of this preparation book is only about training and imparting intercultural skills. Nobody has to become unnecessarily hysterical. Police officers, firefighters and members of the armed forces will also encounter people with different cultural backgrounds in their everyday work, so it makes more than sense to train them in a culturally sensitive manner so that they can react appropriately and de-escalate situations through an understanding of the respective culture.