You are Germany, too, Ali!

The brutal Paris attack has reached Germany at the most inappropriate time.

From Dresden, a vague Islamophobia is spreading across the country with what is, most unfortunately, an unmistakably crude, and even racist tone. Of all people, it's the simple-minded participants in the Pegida movement who now feel justified in their irrational, sweeping criticisms of Islam. Without doubt, something is headed our way. Toward politicians, communities, teachers, journalists, people in public office or people who simply like to get involved when they sense anxiety in society.

Sure, Germany as a state and society is in a more stable position, overall, than our French neighbor. We don't have a colonial history in the Muslim world like France's, our economy is more stable and unemplyoment is lower, and the suburbs of Berlin, Frankfurt or Munich are by no means as divided by sub-cultures as those in Paris and Marseille.

While a formerly grand France has for years been grappling with a severe identity crisis, we Germans have won a new, more positive conception of ourselves in almost the same period of time. In short: France has a genuine malady, from head to toe, while Germany is suffering from a spot of dizziness called Pegida.

Keep Pegida in line

A comparison of the Front National (FN) with Pegida makes it clear. France's xenophobic FN is a far-right political party with 25 percent of the vote, on par with Germany's Social Democrats. The "patriotic Europeans" from Saxony are but a snapshot from the provinces. Thank goodness, Pegida is not a party, so it has no social legitimacy. But as the old adage goes: if far-right parties enter parliament with votes in the double-digit realm in France, Britain or Italy, people in those countries aren't half as alarmed as when a xenophobic splinter group emerges in the heart of Germany.

How else to explain that leading media in Paris and London have shown an interest in tiny Pegida for weeks? History, and that is still true today, casts a long shadow.

The last thing we need now is that the attack on Charlie Hebdo staff should embolden those people incapable of seeing the enormous differences between terrorists infected by the self-proclaimed "Islamic State," and our Turkish neighbors. What is needed now is a great deal of effort on a sociopolitical level - mainly by the political parties that represent the majority of voters.

Muslim patriotism

The roughly 4 million Muslims in Germany also share a responsibility for peace in society. Even if, according to a recent study, about 90 percent of the Muslims with a German passport approve of democracy as a form of government, patriotism toward the country where they live, work and send their kids to school is less noticeable in everyday life. Immigrants to the US have always committed themselves more strongly to their second home. It's true that Germans' willingness to accept and integrate migrants is not as pronounced as exemplified in North America, a classic immigration continent. But in the long run, the eternal reference to a latent hostility toward Islam or a general rejection of foreigners in Germany won't help German Muslims.

What you can do for your country

A call by Muslim groups to take to the streets is a convincing reaction to the Paris attack. A countermovement to the Pegida marches and a real gesture of solidarity, a demonstration of unity with Germany and its legal system. As US President John F. Kennedy put it in his inaugural address in 1961: "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."