Chancellor Angela Merkel has dismissed suggestions that the influx of refugees over the past year brought Islamic extremism to Germany.
Merkel said late Wednesday that "the phenomenon of Islamist terrorism by IS isn't a phenomenon that came to us with the refugees, it's one that we had before too."
This strikes me as a damning excuse. If Germany had no Moslems and no Islamic terrorism problem, Merkel could perhaps have the excuse of not knowing that bringing in Moslem migrants in huge numbers could cause a problem.
But she says she was aware of that terrorism problem.
So she had no excuse for not realizing that Islamic terrorism exists within Moslem populations in Germany, and that increasing the Moslem population dramatically in a short time would increase the terrorism problem for Germany (and Europe).
And that's apart from the issue of ISIL or other Islamic terrorist groups using the migrant flow to infiltrate terrorists into Europe.
Oh well. Merkel has armed guards and full-time security to protect her from being groped or otherwise assaulted. And there is no way that a refugee center would be plunked down next to her home!
So for Merkel, this is just a "phenomenon" and not a traumatic and perhaps life-threatening incident.