Tuesday, February 28, 2006

europe vs. radical islam

politics: i stumbled across this interesting book review in slate called Europe vs. Radical Islam - Alarmist Americans have mostly bad advice for Europeans by Francis Fukuyama. here is a snippet:

... the deeper source of Europe's failure to integrate Muslim immigrants, as Bawer recognizes, is not trendy multiculturalist ideas embraced by the left, but precisely Buchanan's blood-and-soil understanding of identity—a mind-set that until five years ago prevented a German-speaking third-generation Turk from acquiring citizenship because he didn't have a German mother. According to Bawer, "Europeans … will allow immigrants into their country; they'll pay high taxes so that their government can dole out (forever, if necessary) rent support, child benefits. … But they won't really think of them as being Norwegian or Dutch. And they'll rebel mightily against the idea of immigrants living among them as respected, fully equal professionals." American identity, by contrast, has from the beginning been more creedal and political than based on religion or ethnicity. Newly naturalized Guatemalans or Koreans in America can proudly say they are Americans. Pat Buchanan may not like it, but that is precisely what rescues us from the trap the Europeans are in.

you can read the full review HERE.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another thought came to mind. The Muslim community in Britain is not so well integrated. Many of them sympathise (a minority actually agree) with the 7/7 bombers. Before you start talking about how British society has 'failed to integrate' the Muslims take a look at the Indian Sikh/hindu communities. Punjabis in Britain tend to be well off and integrated quite well. This proves the problems with Muslims is the Muslims' problem. They believe in their own cultural/religious superiority, they will not compromise their beliefs/attitudes.

Deep said...

well i don't necessarily agree with the sentiment, i posted it because i found it interesting. personally i think the punditocracy overly embraces this idea that immigrants are thrilled to be in america. i think simple economics plays a larger role than national identiy - work hard, make cash, occupy oneself spending it - easier to do in america than europe. that said, i think brittain is much further along then say, norway, in redefining national identity to include immigrants. i can't comment on how integrated or not integrated muslims are in brittain, but i can say there were no shortage of punjabis sympathizing, and blatantly sponsoring, terrorist incidents in punjab from brittish, canadian, and american soil. i am also confident there were a significant number of IRA sympathizers in brittain back in the day. in my opinion, there's nothing too special about muslims in this regard, other than they happen to be the minority w/ a rebel cause at the moment.

Anonymous said...

http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/inthenews.html

The Trouble With Islam
by
Irshad Manji

Check it out.

Deep said...

i heard about this woman i think on NPR. she has an interesting perspective. i'll take a look.

Anonymous said...

in my opinion, there's nothing too special about muslims in this regard, other than they happen to be the minority w/ a rebel cause at the moment

Partly true. The problem facing us here is not one of Muslim fundamentalism, but of religious fundamentalism in general. Nutjob fanatics of all religious stripes threaten us ALL.
Sikhs have their fair share by the way. Those mobs of Sikhs that closed down the theatre in Birmingham a couple of years ago didn't seem to appreciate the concept of free speech. Like the Muslims rioting over the Danish cartoons, they did not seem to comprehend that in a free society you do not have the right to never be offended.
I also caught a Sikh on CBC tooting the horn of a Canadian Conservative MP just before the recent election, because he stood against gay marriage. WTF?
All the conflicts that you touch upon, have, as their root cause, animosity toward another religion or a rival denomination (N Ireland then, Iraq now).
It seems to me, that if we are to continue to evolve as a species, we will only do so when we have left religion behind as an archaic remnant of our pre-technological brain, or at least practice it as a personal, spiritual experience rather than the tribal identity contact sport that it seems to have become.
Christopher Hitchens said the real Axis of Evil is Christianity, Islam and Judaism...he should have added pretty much every other religion on the face pf the Earth with the exception of perhaps Buddhism.
Now Buddhists...they're awfully nice people, you never see them blowing sh*t up
One T in Britain and British btw...

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