DUESSELDORF, Germany, Dec 7 (AFP) - Germany's main opposition party adopted on Tuesday a central plank of its immigration policy emphasising the fight against Islamist extremism and better integrating foreigners.
With fears over extremism heightened by a suspected plot to attack Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in Germany last week, the policy would restrict the actions of Islamic leaders and promote the teaching of human rights.
It focuses on integration, as opposed to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's notion of multiculturalism, and proposes more courses, including language lessons, but would impose sanctions on foreigners who refuse to take them.
The 12-page document, entitled "In German Interest: Encouraging Integration, Fighting Islamism", was passed by Christian Democratic Union (CDU) members on the final day of their annual congress in Duesseldorf, western Germany.
Under it, the conservatives, who are leading in opinion polls ahead of general elections in 2006, would oblige girls and boys to be clearly informed about human rights and insists that newcomers reject Sharia, or Islamic, law.
"What we expect from foreigners who want to live in Germany is a knowledge of universal human rights and that they clearly, unambiguously distance themselves from Sharia as the predominant law," the document reads.
The CDU would expect Islamic leaders to actively work toward integration and have a good understanding of the lives of Muslims living in Germany.
The recommendations include regular German language testing for immigrant children and measures obliging parents to seek additional classes for them if the child's levels are too low.
But they stop short of urging foreigners to deliver an oath to the German constitution as was demanded by conservatives after the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by suspected Islamic extremists in the Netherlands last month.
In an address to party delegates before it was adopted, CDU secretary general Laurenz Meyer hit out at Schroeder's centre-left coalition for a policy of "multicultural democracy" he claimed is fostering division.
"We have to tell the people that it is we who have the most realistic alternative," Meyer warned. "We must warn (them) against this ideology."
In a speech on Monday, party president Angela Merkel said foreigners should, among other things, be actively encouraged to learn German and she too rejected Schroeder's brand of multiculturalism.
"Multikulti is not integration," she said, using German slang expression for multi-culturalism. The government's policy has led to "communities living alongside each other rather than with each other."
Merkel also used her two-hour speech to lash out anew at Schroeder for the support he has given Turkey, which is mainly Muslim but remains a secular state, in its efforts to join the European Union.
"The government is doing nothing more than living a lie again in its approach to Turkey's accession talks with the EU," she said.
"The inner cohesion of the European Union and its ability to integrate must not be weighed down," Merkel said, and reiterated that the CDU would offer Ankara a so-called "privileged partnership" rather than full membership.
EU leaders are expected to agree to allow Turkey to begin accession talks when they meet in Brussels on December 16-17. But a draft text envisages agreement on Turkish entry under strict conditions, and with no guarantees.
12/07/2004 13:22 GMT - AFP