One of the things guaranteed to get my attention is sanctimonious broad-stroke preaching designed to promote indiscriminate acceptance of Syrian migrants into Europe and other nations. I can understand the sentiment from a humane and Christian perspective. But in this case I believe it to be a dangerous one.
Before I get into it, let me first add here that I’m an immigrant twice over. My parents migrated to Australia from Italy when I was a toddler and I recently migrated to the United States.
When my parents moved to their new country, they were anxious to fit into their new society. They and their fellow European migrants didn’t seek to change the culture of that country. They simply wanted to find work and raise their families in a safe environment.
There were teething problems. There will always be some clash of cultures when a new group arrives en masse into a new country over a short period of time. Some of us of European stock began to understand how our Australian friends must have felt when we saw the great influx of Asian migrants after the Vietnam War. But overall all these diverse groups assimilated well into the Australian culture.
So, why shouldn’t the same thing apply with the current mass migration into Europe? Won’t they gradually assimilate in the same way as other groups?
These are sensitive and complicated questions.
Remember the 2005 Paris riots? You can get different sides of the story. One observer will tell you why he won’t call them “Muslim riots.” They are very careful not to be tainted with religious bias (at least in the case of Islam) or racism. Those who are unable to avoid the fact that these were Muslim rioters will offer the familiar excuses for the extreme behavior…they are poor, disaffected, isolated etc.
Others, like Daniel Pipes, aren’t afraid to identify the participants and the ideological causes. He tries to be objective with his conclusions. His long-term tracking of No Go Zones in France is a fair read. It concludes that these zones cannot always be strictly defined as No-Go. However, a January 2015 article by Pipes raised legitimate concerns. Of the examples of Rotherham and Birmingham, he noted:
“…I know of no historical parallel, in which a majority population accepts the customs and even the criminality of a poorer and weaker immigrant community. The world has never seen anything comparable to the contemporary West’s blend of achievement, timidity, and guilt, of hugely superior power matched by a deep reluctance to use it.”
It’s one thing to visit a No-Go Zone during the day. It’s quite another for citizens of a nation to quickly find themselves living as a minority in areas where Sharia law is often illegally enforced.
In 2013, investigative journalist Stacey Dooley produced a video addressing the sudden change brought about by Muslim immigration in her hometown of Luton. Dooley is shown arguing with Muslims marching on the streets. Later on she interviews a right wing member of the “English Defense League” and gets him to dialogue with Muslims. It was a nice idea.
In the end, Dooley ends up making the conciliatory observation that not all Muslims are radical and most want to live in peace. We already knew that. Former Muslim Nabeel Qureshi and his family are an excellent example of the latter. She suggests that we should find ways of “understanding the other point of view.” I agree to a point.
Unfortunately, Dooley was unable to offer a solution to the growing “radical element” of Islam in the United Kingdom and Europe. How will trying to understand someone who is determined to convert your society at any cost, fix the problem? How does Israel appease Iran and the two Palestinian governments, when all they want is Israel’s destruction?
Understanding another’s point of view doesn’t automatically resolve a conflict. On the other hand, recognizing the problem prepares one to deal with the issues.
I’d been discussing the growing anti-Semitism in Europe with someone who expressed skepticism. He remarked that when holidaying in Paris he saw nothing unusual. There were Jews walking around safely etc. Yet visiting tourist areas of Paris isn’t the same as living in the city’s suburbs, day in and day out.
He countered that Spain was courting Jewish migration. Interestingly, this offer upset Muslim groups. The irony was that an article purporting to prove this point also contained news items with the following headlines: Fight Against Anti-Semitism is ‘National Cause’ in France and Exodus: Europe’s Jews are Fleeing Again.
These articles were silent about the Islamist origins of this anti-Semitism. One sees what one wants. If one sees what one dislikes, one doesn’t talk about it.
The optimists (or those in denial) will wax self-righteous over allegations that the sudden influx of Muslim refugees into Europe will exacerbate existing problems. They’ll scoff at any suggestion that there are tolerance or cultural issues with Islam, and that the violent skirmishes involving refugees are anything more than a glitch. They’d shrug off any notion that Christian asylum seekers are often targeted by their Muslim counterparts.
They’ve accepted the main stream narrative. Some are afraid to come to a different conclusion for fear of being seen as Islamophobic.
People who are genuinely interested in these issues should visit Gatestone Institute and MEMRI to do some research. They might also want to listen to Raymond Ibrahim discuss the World’s Most Dangerous Ideology.
What I’m going to write next may sound like I’ve gone off on a tangent. But I haven’t really.
The only solution to these problems is Jesus Christ (Isaiah 9:6; Matt 5:43-44; Rom 8:9-14; Gal 5:22-25).
When the pope delivered his popular speeches to the US Congress and the United Nations, he failed to punch home that solution. The very country where the media has often hailed him as a pope for all people is a country which is oppressing Christianity. May I suggest that had he delivered the message that the reason for the world’s social problems is its sin nature – and that Christ is the only solution – he wouldn’t have been so well received.
The fact that Christianity has almost become extinct in the Middle East because of Islamist ideology and intolerance should be a clear warning for Europe. The world has largely ignored this catastrophe while suppressing and demonizing Christianity. Europe is now importing the same intolerant ideology to secularism and other faiths.
Christ is the only answer.
Yet we have Christian leaders who are reluctant to preach Him to the masses Matt 10:33-39. Many of these same leaders have also given the Qur’an and Allah equal status to the Bible and Yahweh. How can they be equal when one denies the other? This is gross error.
What a great irony and tragedy!
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