“Religion has never been a panacea against xenophobia”

Richter told the daily newspaper “Die Welt” that the low prevalence of religious beliefs in the population must be seen as the cause of the demonstrations and repeated attacks against refugees that have been going on for months. “80 percent of the population is areligious. Religion as a resource for ethical standards and attitudes is largely unavailable,” said the social scientist and theologian in an interview with Die Welt published yesterday. The President of the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD), philosopher and political scientist Frieder Otto Wolf, criticized the statements in no uncertain terms on Wednesday in Berlin. “With such statements, Mr. Richter is obviously trying to cover up both the long-standing failures of the CDU-led state government and the failures of his own authority in the fight against right-wing extremism, xenophobia and hatred,” said Wolf. Richter’s words not only contained highly dubious speculation, but also had a defamatory effect. “To cite the absence of religious convictions as a relevant cause for the existence of xenophobic movements in Saxony is an affront to the very large number of people in the population who lead their lives without recourse to religious beliefs and distance themselves from such movements or even actively support an open and humane society – in Saxony and elsewhere,” said Frieder Otto Wolf. He continued: “The academic level of the director of the Saxon State Center for Political Education would have done well to remember, not least in view of German and European history, how little religion per se is a resource for humane ethical standards. Religion and religious belief have never been a panacea against xenophobia and violence – as is currently demonstrated by the fact that church symbols have repeatedly been seen in Pegida demonstrations and leading figures in the AfD are avowed Christians,” said the President of the Humanist Association. Frieder Otto Wolf therefore called on the head of the Saxon State Center for Political Education to “fulfill the task assigned to him by the state as a responsible and committed promoter of an open, pluralistic and humane society even more effectively, instead of behaving like a missionary who always sees the root of all evil in the absence of his own faith.”