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- THE WEEK, Page 25WORLDThe Circle of Hate Widens
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- Germany's xenophobes may be targeting more than asylum seekers
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- "It is burning in the Ratzeburger Street. Heil Hitler." In a
- 12:30 a.m. call to the police in the small German town of
- Molln, those words announced the single worst attack on
- foreigners to date -- one that killed a Turkish grandmother and
- two Turkish girls and injured nine other people.
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- The incident -- the latest in a year that has seen 1,800
- acts of xenophobia -- was horrifying, both in its own right and
- as a harbinger of things to come. Since the attack was directed
- against Turkish resident workers, more than 1.7 million of whom
- currently live in Germany, it stoked fears that the far right
- was lengthening its list of enemies beyond asylum seekers.
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- The arson in Molln elicited more calls for stiffer laws
- and sharper penalties, and at week's end, Germany officially
- banned the far-right Nationalistic Front. German federal
- prosecutor Alexander von Stahl took charge of the case, marking
- the first instance in which he has assumed responsibility for
- an investigation of far-right violence. The use of the Hitler
- salute on the phone, said Von Stahl in explaining his
- involvement, "indicates that the unidentified criminals wanted
- to use their crime to help restore a Nazi dictatorship in
- Germany."
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