BERLIN, Germany—In her New Year message German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Islamist terrorism was the biggest challenge facing her country, and that it was especially sickening to come from people who sought protection in Germany.
Saying that 2016 was a year of severe tests for Germany, Merkel reassured her people of safety and that terrorists wouldn’t be able to undermine their way of life.
"As we go about our lives and our work, we are saying to the terrorists: 'You are hate-filled murderers, but you do not determine how we live and want to live. We are free, considerate and open'," she said in her speech.
Merkel defended her government’s open-door policy of receiving more than one million migrants, mostly from Syria in 2015, saying the devastation and brutal war in Syria, especially in Aleppo justified helping its victims.
“All this is reflected in our democracy, rule of law and values. They are the opposite of the hate-filled world of terrorism and will prove stronger than it. Together we are stronger. Our state is stronger,” she said.
The Chancellor has been criticized by many in Germany particularly following several incidents across the country involving asylum seekers, the latest being a Tunisian man driving a lorry into a Christmas market which killed 12 people.
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