Racism in Europe: NPR Series
I recommend listening/reading the three-part story NPR is running on the growing xenophobia in Europe. The third part is due tomorrow. So far they have covered the worrisome situation in Germany and Italy. The topic of the treatment of undocumented migrants in the U.S. has been exhaustively discussed in this blog, but we can never forget that the situation is quite widespread around the world. I was aware of the growing xenophobia and subsequent violent treatment of South Asian migrants in Russia, but I was honestly unaware about a similar situation in Western Europe. The series has been so far an eye-opener for me.
This topic becomes crucially important in a globalized post-colonial world that should spark serious discussions at the ground level, but also at the highest levels of policy-making and international diplomacy circles. It would be interesting to see if the Holy Father comments on migration on his upcoming encyclical due this Spring (maybe).
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Thanks. I heard the one on Italy this am and just read the one on Germany. When I lived in Spain the things educated Spaniards said about Blacks and Jews would make most everyone in America blush. I had a friend who was a convert to Catholicism that lived in Spain for a year. After the abuse he took for his Jewish background from fellow academics, he left the Faith and returned to Judaism.
Great heads-up!
Thank you.
As a European, I am quite familiar with the situation. Apart from “regular” dislike of foreigners, Islam is a big problem in Europe – including for Muslims (“honor killings” and the like). Such worries are not racism. Especially the UK had people from the hinterlands of Pakistan immigrate – or Africa, from where ruthless drug gangs hail, people who frequently expect to live as they had before – oppression of women, incest and other lovely things. It’d be foolish to confuse legitimate problems with plain xenophobia. Some ‘phobias’ are based in reality. An increasing(ly) radical Islamic population is a very real threat to democracy and Western values, especially, as always, to women. A very threat to their lives, both for Muslim women who refuse to be chattel, as well as Western women who are (gang)raped because, well, they dress like “whores” and deserve it, in that mindset. This has been going on for quite some time. There is a term in French for it: tournante (from taking one’s turn). As always, Muslims suffer the most at the hands of other Muslims.
To be blind to this, as many liberals are, is idiotic, and dangerous. Ask anyone who “offended” Islam. Of course, it’s easy to offend it. While of course being Muslim is not synonymous with being radical, the radicals are the ones dominating the agenda, often by intimidation of other Muslims. You can imagine how screwed up people are who kill their own daughters because of “honor”. (usually they have a male relative who’s still a minor do it).
You cannot combine the stone age with Western values. And, in a brutal irony, now many Muslims who fled their reactionary countries now find themselves surrounded by the very people they fled from, and, to boot, get confused for them. Before the immigration of the very worst Islam has to offer, nobody had any problem with, say, Persians. I noticed the change in Muslims in Vienna – headscarves, among young women, are far, far more common than they used to be. There’s never been much of a problem with Turks in Austria – apart from the common chauvinism on the side of the men. While some of them there are more radical, coming from rural areas (Istanbul is very different from, say, Anatolia), other countries of origin is where the real radicals come from.
Apart from those real problems, some people don’t need them to be racists – just as many antisemites don’t even have Jews in their country. As far as Germany is concerned, the problem exists mostly in former East Germany, which still lags behind the West. A curious fact is the dearth of women there, they left for the Western states in droves. Men left to their own devices with frequently dire prospects…
Since politicians do little to deal with the problem, they leave the door open to demagogues. Political correctness is present in the “old world”, too. Ignore the problems, apart from “don’t be xenophobic” will empower “strong men”, such as France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen, or the late Austrian politician Joerg Haider. They touch on something very real, albeit in frequently vile manner.
A collective sigh at such phenomena is both inappropriate and counter-productive. Freedom and safety must be defended, for everybody’s sake, including “regular” Muslims.
Btw, a good book on Islam’s “Glory Days” (long before madmen took over in many places) is “God’s Crucible” by David L. Lewis. The medieval days of Al-Andalus, when Islam was superior to Christendom in most every way, from science to art to poetry and tolerance (relative to contemporary standards). A parallel history, presenting both sides of the conflict. As far as Jews in Spain are concerned – they were better off under Muslims (today obviously that’s different). Once Ferdinand and Isabella took over, things got very, very ugly. Even the “conversos” were never trusted. I believe St. Teresa of Aquila is said to be from a conversos family.
Of course, such treatment wasn’t confined to Spain. One need only look at Germany and its cathedrals with “Jew sows”, showing Jews suckling on a pig (and other parts). Black legends in Austria and Italy (Jews drinking the blood of Christian children. “Devotion” to that forbidden by the church only a few decades ago) Some cathedral still have them. Mind you, it was ecumenical, Luther was even worse. Of course, religion isn’t needed to hate Jews – or anyone – but it “helps”. It fans the flames some more – look at N. Ireland, former Yugoslavia etc. It certainly suits those in power well to have scapegoats, from Jews to gays to those who “hate us because we’re free.”
One more week of Bush, who’s now basically pleading for some love thrown his way. Very strange spectacle.
Interesting, Katerina. I once taught a Diplomat’s son from an African nation and he had lived in many parts of Asia and Europe. He told me of all the nations outside of his own country, he couldn’t imagine living outside the US because of the racism he encountered everywhere else.
radicalcatholicmom. Did you proselytize the Diplomat’s son. We might not have as much racism in the US.. we sure do have a whole lot of religion!
RAG: “radicalcatholicmom. Did you proselytize the Diplomat’s son. We might not have as much racism in the US.. we sure do have a whole lot of religion!”
Whoa! be careful, Grandma, your religious bigotry is showing. And no, I was a public school teacher so I didn’t speak about my faith. The student was Muslim so you might not like him.
The student was Muslim so you might not like him.
Hehehe