Cologne Police in Germany tweeted new year’s wishes in German, English, French and Arabic which sparked outrage among Germans on Twitter.
#PolizeiNRW #Köln #Leverkusen
تتمنى الشرطة في كولن لجميع الناس في منطقة كولن وليفركوزن والمدن الأخرى إحتفالاً سعيداً بعام 2018 الجديد.
https://t.co/G5erMWFNQyرأس السنة 2017 ـ لمزيد المعلومات: # pic.twitter.com/BGxs4Kew7K— Polizei NRW K (@polizei_nrw_k) December 31, 2017
Some users reacted whether the police will now come on camels,
Demnächst kommt die berittene auf Kamelen?
So schwindet der Respekt und die Akteptanz tägl.mehr und es wird sich gewundert.— Passpartoute (@HyronimusLotter) December 31, 2017
While others pointed out how there are probably more Polish and Russian speaking people in Germany, but shocking German Police would choose Arabic over these languages to tweet the greeting.
Es ist nicht zu fassen was hier los ist! Seit Jahren leben Polen,Russen etc. in Deutschland. NIEMALS wurde in den Sprachen getwittert. Sie sollten sich schämen!
— Miriam Özen © (@MiriamOzen) January 1, 2018
Meanwhile, Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party, had her Twitter account suspended for 12 hours on Monday after she accused Cologne Police of appeasing “barbaric, gang-raping Muslim hordes of men” after they tweeted a new year message in Arabic. She then re-posted the same message on Facebook, where it was also blocked for reasons of incitement.
She was referring to the 2015 incident where mass sexual assaults on women took place by men of mostly Arab or North African origin. Witnesses and police had described men working in ‘coordinated’ groups to grope women who were unable to escape, while two women reported they were raped. Back then, Cologne Police was also accused of covering up the mass sexual assault as the Police had said the celebrations had passed off peacefully while dozens of women had said they were robbed and sexually assaulted.
Reacting to criticism, Cologne Police spokesperson has said that they simply wanted to be understood by more people. While German is the official language of Germany, the language spoken by maximum immigrants in Germany is Turkish, followed by Kurdish, not Arabic.
