Thus, to say yes to any stance against an Arab or Muslim state is to invite another repeat of the riots we saw last year, where apparently 10,000 vehicles were torched.
This train of thought has been rattling around in my head for awhile, and it was recently brought back to life by this article:
I don't really know much about average statistics, but that seems like an awful lot to me. 2,500 a year?
France's Interior Ministry said 2,500 police officers had been "wounded" this year. The head of the hard-line trade union "Action Police" Michel Thooris... describe[d] conditions in housing developments turned slums as "intifada." Police cruisers are pelted daily with stones and "Molotov cocktails"...An average of 14 policemen a day are injured in bloody clashes with jobless youngsters.
There are two things that actually interest me about this whole issue. First, the rise of violent Islam internal to European states has produced an equally radical backlash, namely right-wing nationalist extremism to combat the "threat of Islam." (Not unfamiliar of course, but I won't join the hystericalm knee-jerk left in calling all our Republicans fascists.) I'm just going to end this thought by stating that I think the rise of right-wing extremism is never a good thing. Period.
Second, this seems, at least to me, to be an affirmation of the conservative belief that multiculturalism is ill-conceived, and that integration is essential to any large-scale immigration problem. (Multiculturalism being the belief that a society can/should be composed of distinct cultural groups of equal status, as opposed to a more integrationist approach). If you look at the French Riots, Van Gogh murder, London bombings, and the ghettoization of Muslims in Europe, the Multi-cultural capital of the world, it appears that allowing or encouraging these communities to remain distinct breeds identities of separateness, alienation, and division.
For example, I remember reading about the new phenomena of "Digital Ghettos" in England, that is, technology has enabled the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities to get all of their television and cultural programming directly from Pakistani and Bangladeshi providers and networks. As a result, if you live in a Pakistani neighborhood and watch all Pakistani television from your dish, and read all Pakistani papers from the internet...living in London really doesn't mean a thing.
Obviously the counterexample is the United States, which at least until recently, has been incredible at integrating its immigrant populations. I'm still not sure what to make of the current immigration issue though...considering the proliferation of "Little Mexicos" and "Little Havanas" around the country. Maybe I'm just a white kid in a Chinese body who is happy to have accepted my position in this country, but I still tend to believe that assimilation and integration is absolutely crucial. Who the fuck knows.
Does anyone not understand why I put up pictures of Twinkies?
P.S. - Should I stop posting about these random political thoughts? I mean, I don't think it'll make a difference as to whether I continue to do it or not...but I wonder if it's annoying. I like it because it helps me articulate these amorphous ideas in my head...but I don't want to drive away the 2 and a half people who read this thing. (Actually respond if you would be so kind.)
P.P.S - Is it must me, or do lots of Europeans look somewhat inbred?
7 comments:
for me at least, i really like reading them. i remember how we'd talk about the news and what was going on in the world back in college, which i liked doing because you're way better at putting that sort of thing into words than i am. i also like reading them because most political commentary is so completely sure of itself and represents an definite stance and opinion, whereas a lot of what you write is questions and a sort of hashing things out to try and understand things. since you're somebody whose opinion actually means something to me, this is often a lot more helpful to me than random other blogs. or at least i like reading yours in addition to all that.
plus, it's nice to have offensive pictorial commentary, like the twinkies.
arg. i am putting off work and can't focus because of all the motherfucking snow.
sarah
This leads to the question, when you have people whose primary allegiance is to their own country, rather than their adopted one, and they remain esconsced in their own culture, without attempting to experience the culture of the country in which they exist(unlike how Jewish immigrant kids would play baseball, and then go home for Shabbas), what do you do. You have a snake in your bosom, one dedicated, by their holiest text, to the overthrow of the country who have extended them hospitality.
For instance, and this is from the Washington Post (friggin' Watergate exposers) - children's textbooks used in Muslim private school in the U.S. To quote John Derbyshire "One in use at the Islamic Saudi Academy in suburban Virginia instructs readers that a sure sign of the Day of Judgment will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees that say: "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him."
We can't win with this. They won't assimilate, they won't put aside the violence inherent in their religion, nor their anti-Semitism. You have to balance the accepting nature of Western culture vs. the harm that Muslim immigrants do to the countries they inhabit.
Look at it this way. The French act like pussies cause they got a ton of Muslims, who they don't want to piss off. Well, look how quickly the French caved to the Muslims after riots. The only way to stop a bully is to stand up and say "enough is enough". You can't negotiate with people who believe you deserve to die, and whose holiest book contradicts the foundations upon which Western Civilization is built.
Super Jew
P.S. I consider you more of a banana than a twinkie
P.P.S. I am aware that the above is a rambling diatribe without a cogent thread running through it, but I am trying to pay attention in SecReg and rail at the French at the same time. Its come out like a synthesis of "French people and Ken Lay suck"
Quick Response to Superjew:
I'm not sure if you're saying that muslims, by definition, are incapable and willing to assimilate...which doesn't really seem plausible...
Or that the European segregation of them has allowed them to foster a sense of separateness and righteous religious anger.
Or that Jews do in fact suck
Sarah: Thanks, Awesome...Definitely going to continue then. Appreciate it.
And snow rocks.
John: 1) I read "A Man in Full" in a single night during a terrifying pregnancy scare under the worst possible circumstances ever...and I liked it. The only thing I can remember is the dude with massive forearms and the black white lawyer, Roger Too White.
2) Did I use the term Christianist? Or have you started reading Andrew Sullivan? (I like it too.)
3) Cokehead PCU Director rules. Fuck the hippies.
Just wanted to say that my 3.5 months in Germany (now with added staring!) made me realize that the cliche of America being the world's melting pot is somewhat true--despite, as you point out, the prevalence of Chinatowns and Little Italys (Italies?) in the States, we're much better off at the moment than, for example, Germany, where they have a massive, almost completely segregated Turkish community and rampant problems with racism.
On the topic of Chinatown and Little Italy: over the past century these two particular cultures have been (at least from my very humble, ignorant point of view--please correct me if necessary) integrated into America rather successfully. People from either culture were viewed as quasi-troglodytes in the past (and now they're the ones demanding that you speak English when ordering a cheesesteak). I like to think that the Latino community will experience a similar, albeit gradual acceptance.
Please keep in mind that I am much more used to dissecting articles on chemistry than pontificating about immigration, etc.
-M.
No need to be deferential to anyone else's opinion about immigration or Chinatown/Little Italy since you were actually IN Germany and witnessed the sharp segregation of Turks and Germans (man...Turks and Germans...Add the Mongols and you got yourself a master brutish race).
What you said makes a lot of sense, but I'm wondering if you can identify a reason why the Latino community would be able to integrate while the Turks wouldn't?
I'm making this up, but I feel like the relative size and sheer distance from home of previous migrant populations forced integration whereas I'm not sure sure that there is any need for Latinos to integrate unless they choose to.
enjoyed the French post and the twinky you yellow on the outside white on the inside freak :)
love you
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