Veiling of public statues in German-speaking areas

Democracy - how long will it remain?

On 27 November 2007, we continued our precious campaign of veiling statues to inform the public about the threat of Islamisation to our democratic and liberal values. With this repeated action in the cities of Zurich, Innbruck, Vienna, Cologne, Berlin, Heidelberg, Wuppertal, Munich, Osnabrück, and Mönchengladbach, we expanded to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

- 11 statues were veiled with a Burqa or a head scarf.

- The statues also bear a sash inscribed with a question all German, Swiss and Austrian citizins have to ask themselves: Democracy - how long will it remain?

- Each statue bears two printed signboards which draw a comparison between the German, Austrian and Swiss constitutions on the one hand and the Quran otherwise. Thus these statues convey the message that many citizins are afraid to say.

LINK to the campaign pictures : http://www.flickr.com/photos/veiled_skulptures/

The aim of this campaign is to point out that creeping Islamisation endangers the European idea of UNITY IN VARIETY in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and, in the long run, also the liberal core values and democracy of entire social and political Europe.

With the veiling of public sculptures, our goal is to draw public attention to the fact that democratic and liberal as well as secular thinking is the most precious value that is to be advocated for and to be protected. We want to show that the public discussion concerning Islam is influenced mainly by one-sided claims for integration, particularly by the so called one-sided demand for tolerance by European societies towards Muslim communities. In our understanding, tolerance and integration have to be carried out by both sides. Everywhere, muslim groups and societies dismiss any serious or credible attempt to prove any kind of tolerance towards "non-believers".

On the one hand, the granted privileges for those religious-political oriented minorities haven't lead to any integration success. On the other hand, the European societies seem to lack any willingness to stand up for their values such as liberal thinking, women's rights or attitudes of solidarity. These processes are leading to strained relations towards parallel societies.

QURAN, Sura 8, Verse 39:
And fight them on till there remains not any mischief and the entire religion be only of Allah;

As long as violence is both a basic tenet in the Quran and an expressed intent of the Islam-ideology, Islam itself cannot be considered as being a religion or an acceptable part of the content frame of Article 4 of the German constitution, of Article 14 of the Austrian constitution and of Article 15 of the Swiss constitution. Our European constitutions do not permit any political or religious movements that refer to force or violence, and no exception is stated for movements that claim exemption because they call themselves a religion.

For example, the Quran imperatives of Sura 8, Verse 39 contradict the German, Austrian and Swiss constitutions, all of which refer to religious freedom and liberal views regarding professions of faiths and beliefs:

(Further examples: Sura 5, verse 52, or Sura 8, verse 40 and 55, or Sura 9, verse 5, or Sura 98, verse 6.)

Our democracy is NOT a God-given good. It is the opposite - for centuries, it has been obtained only through willful and committed efforts. In the religious as well as politically motivated Islam-ideology, we see a threat to European democracy itself. If we all do not advocate for European values and for liberal thinking - to which our societies again and again refer in a very conscious way - our democratic and peaceful Europe will be a phase-out model soon.

Anonymous Group of Democratic and Free Thinking

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Switzerland:

Zürich: "Sitting Female"/ "Die Sitzende", by Hermann Hubacher near the Chinese garden, at Zürichsee

Austria:

Innsbruck: "Font of Leopold"/ "Leopoldbrunnen" by Caspar Gras, "Amphitrite" (oceanic nymph, part of the Greek mythology/female sovereign of the ocean)

Vienna: "Empress Elisabeth"- statue by Friedrich Ohmann, this statue in sitting posture within a disaffiliated Construction, Volksgarten Wien

Germany:

Berlin:
1. "Font of Neptune"/ "Neptunbrunnen" by Reinhold Begas, Spanndauer Straße

2. "The Caller"/ "Der Rufer" by Gerhard Marcks
Inscription on the pedestal: "I pace through the world and exclaim peace peace peace", Straße des 17. Juni, Großer Tiergarten, median strip towards the Brandenburger Tor

Mönchengladbach: "Eva II" by Gerhard Marcks, at the Adenauerplatz

Osnabrück: abstract female sculpture by Lothar Fischer
Inscription of the pedestal: "Dedicated to the victims of truth and freedom", near the Dominican Church, at the Rißmüllerplatz, 49076 Osnabrück, 30 m within the heavily used streetcircle of the city

Heidelberg: "Athena-Statue" by Franz Conrad Linck, Goddess of town centres, of war, and of wisdoms, Patron of the arts, Karl-Theodor-Brücke (Alte Brücke), connects districts of Heidelberg over the river Neckar

München: "Maxmonument" by Caspar Zumbusch, MaximilianII-memorial, females at the pedestal, Maximilianstrasse

Wuppertal: "Mina Knallenfalls", Locally famous, pedestrian area at the Poststrasse, near the main station

Cologne: "Font of Females" or "Females in the Rain" by Anneliese Langenbach, ten females of Cologne’s 2000 years lasting history are portrayed in order to point at females’ below average presentation in that history