German banker who believes in 'Jewish gene' get death threats on Facebook

From: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/german-banker-who-believes-in-jewish-gene-get-death-threats-on-facebook-1.312724

The controversial 65-year-old banker has been placed under police protection and was accompanied by four officers at a speaking engagement on Monday.

The German banker Thilo Sarrazin, who caused outrage with a book blaming Islam for the poor integration of Muslims and for declaring there was a "Jewish gene", has been threatened with murder on social networking site Facebook, media reported Tuesday.

Police are investigating the threat, German daily Bild reported.

The controversial 65-year-old banker has been placed under police protection and was accompanied by four officers at a speaking engagement on Monday.

After the engagement, at which Sarrazin defended his ideas about immigration and the German welfare state, Sarrazin was verbally abused by a man as he made his way to his vehicle.

Sarrazin's book, Germany Abolishes Itself, has become an instant bestseller since its launch last week.

The Berliner Zeitung daily said the German central bank's board was no longer debating whether to remove Sarrazin, but rather how to do so. The Bundesbank declined to comment on the report.

The central bank can only remove Sarrazin on the grounds of serious misconduct. Both the 65-year-old and the bank have repeatedly stated his comments on race and religion are not linked to his role at the Bundesbank.

Germany's Jewish community has been strongly critical of Sarrazin and a U.S. Holocaust survivors' group said on Thursday it would lobby for Sarrazin to be removed from the Bundesbank.

"Holocaust survivors from Israel, Europe, Australia, and the Americas will approach the German embassies in some two dozen countries to demand the immediate removal of Thilo Sarrazin," said Elan Steinberg, Vice President of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.

"Sarrazin's racist comments have not only offended us as victims of Nazi Germany's brutalities, but are blackening the morally upright position of modern day Germany."

The bank said on Wednesday it had put off a decision on Sarrazin's fate until at least Thursday.

	German Central Bank executive Thilo Sarrazin
	Photo by: AP