Facebook posts about the migrant crisis should be the least of Angela Merkel’s worries

So the German Chancellor has just been caught on microphone talking with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was overheard confronting Zuckerberg over incendiary posts on the social network, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, amid complaints from her government about anti-immigrant posts in the midst of Europe’s refugee crisis. On the sidelines of a United Nations luncheon on Saturday, Merkel was caught on a hot mic pressing Zuckerberg about social media posts about the wave of Syrian refugees entering Germany, the publication reported. The Facebook CEO was overheard responding that “we need to do some work” on curtailing anti-immigrant posts about the refugee crisis. “Are you working on this?” Merkel asked in English, to which Zuckerberg replied in the affirmative before the transmission was disrupted.

But here’s a question for Chancellor Merkel: doesn’t the problem start before that?

Consider this report in Deutsche Welle. There are no official statistics, but aid organisations, social workers and volunteers note that ethnic, social, cultural and religious tensions are on the rise in Germany’s overcrowded refugee shelters.

Separating refugees according to religion is now being mentioned as an interim solution to help alleviate the problems. Up to one million migrants are expected to arrive in the country before the end of the year.

Tempers flare easily at close quarters. In Leipzig last week, about 200 refugees wielding table legs and bed frames started a fight after they couldn’t agree who got to use one of the few toilets first. It took a large police contingent to calm the situation.

Other recent incidents include a riot at a refugee shelter in central Germany over a torn Koran and Muslim Chechens beating up Syrian Christians in a Berlin shelter.

Islam is a part of Germany, but Islamism clearly isn’t, said opposition Greens party leader Cem Özdemir, adding that tolerance must not be misinterpreted and exploited as weakness. But