The rise of Islam in Europe has caused individuals and leaders to pause and ponder the question,” does Islam belong here?” Germans sensing the ramifications of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 2015 statement, “Islam belongs to Germany,” and her open-door refugee policy are expressing their discontentment with Islam more than ever.

In a recent poll conducted by Bild, 61% of Germans agreed that Islam is “not a part of Germany,” which shows an upward trend since August of 2014 when another poll showed 52% of Germans disagreeing with former German President Christian Wulff’s proclamation, “Islam is now also a part of Germany.”

While the European Left tries to ostracize Right-wing parties as ‘Islamophobic,’ parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfG) are on the upswing, largely because of the Muslim migration crisis. AfD deputy leader Beatrix von Storch directly confronts this perception of her party being ‘Islamophobic.’ Crucially, she talked about her party not being against Islam or individual Muslims but Sharia law.

Von Storch gave an example of one Muslim group that will not completely distance itself from political Islam, the German Central Council of Muslims, which “has a political claim to power in most interpretations [of Islam]… that we do not recogni[z]e. This is not a ‘hatred of Muslims[.]’” Breitbart further elaborates on Von Storch’s interview about political Islam:

Because these Islamic associations had not made it clear they were against pushing sharia as “secular law, both criminal and civil, [in areas such as] the rules for divorce and the place of women”, these groups must now “distance themselves explicitly from the civil aspects of sharia”.

Mrs. von Storch said Muslim political groups should affirm that they recogni[z]e the primacy of what is known as the Basic Law — Germany’s written constitution.

It’s not unreasonable for Von Storch and other Germans to see the need for Muslim groups to affirm Germany’s Basic Law – its constitution. It is only fair for everybody to play by the same set of rules. The real problem that keeps some Muslims from doing this is their adherence to Sharia law. Sharia is so dangerous because it does not separate the sacred from the profane in Islam. This all-encompassing philosophy deals with every area of human life (worship and human interaction), from clothing attire to food safety; thereby, affecting not just Muslims but non-Muslims. It will be vital for German Muslim leaders to renounce the harmful aspects of Sharia in order for Muslims to properly integrate into German society. Currently, the prospects of this occurring seem bleak as Aiman Mazyek of the Central Council of Muslims took such an offense to AfG’s proposed ban on minarets and burqas, that he implicitly compared AfG to the Nazis. So much for honest dialogue.

There needs to be a reformation within Islam separating the political and the religious before the broader Islamic community can fully integrate into the West. Until then Muslim leaders will see any criticism of political Islam as a direct insult towards all Muslims, and Muslim politicians will use this victimization tactic to garner support from the Left. As Von Storch has said this is not a battle against Muslims but against Sharia.