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Pathetic

By BlackSun / February 3rd, 2006 / Religion / 127CommentsPathetic2006-02-03+20%3A03%3A55BlackSun

Religion of ~~Peace~~ ~~Violence~~ Ignorance

Last Modified : February 3rd, 2006
Filed under : Religion
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Comments (127CommentsPathetic2006-02-03+20%3A03%3A55BlackSun)

A Dane / February 3rd, 2006, 1:11 pm / #1

I wrote the following letter to the webmaster of a liberal website that showed a little too much ignorance about European conditions a few years ago. I tend to be liberal, politically, speaking, also, libertarian on some issues (pretty confusing), but there is a naivety when it concerns the issue of religious tolerance among some liberals, that makes my blood boil. The reply I got was so far off from any understanding, that I gave up trying to explain.

I am a Danish immigrant. I have lived in the US since 1988. In the eighties, during the summers between school semesters, I used to take factory work, in Sweden and Denmark, where I would often be the only
Scandinavian among a diverse group of hundreds of refugee immigrants, most of them Muslims. Later as a social worker, I also encountered and worked with Muslim families.

During my work in the factories, I did get somewhat close to the other Muslim women. We had many conversations and many good laughs. I was curious about their culture and wanted to learn as much as I could.

I had always considered myself open-minded and espoused the rights of the oppressed, but what I encountered among my fellow workers also shocked me. The contempt that they felt for our culture baffled me. Here they were in a country that had rescued them, housed them, clothed them, fed them, given them a livelihood, (remember this is not the US; the welfare system of Scandinavia is generous to a degree that is incomprehensible to most Americans) and all they could do was condemn us because we eat pork and are “decadent”? They hated our people, our culture and our habits. There was no gratitude, more a sense of entitlement. Believe me I tried to get some evidence of gratitude in my conversations with them. I, finally, asked some of the Muslim women that I had become friendly with, why they were in Scandinavia if they hated us so much. They responded, that the money was the reason. Having come from poverty, they longed for prosperity. These women would bring photos to work showing their latest acquisitions for their homes like Persian rugs decorating the walls and expensive leather furniture. They were all symbols of wealth to them. And it was the generosity of the Scandinavian people that was responsible.

Sometimes, some of these women would come to work with bruises on their bodies. Their husbands had beaten them up. When I questioned this, these women became defensive. It was the right of their husbands to do that, when their wives were out of line. This is a cultural issue, that is not fixed that easily, I understand that, but when these women, in the same heartbeat, turned around and condemned Swedish women for not putting up with that kind of treatment from their husbands it became ridiculous. Today, the majority of women seeking protection in Danish battered women’s shelters are Muslim immigrants. The government has had to change the Danish laws to accommodate the Muslim women who need a taxi driver to take them to a battered woman’s shelter, so they can, specifically, ask for a Danish driver. It was considered discriminatory before, but the Muslim taxi drivers are plugged in with each other and will contact the husband of the battered woman to report on her whereabouts sabotaging her attempts to break free.

It is hard to reason with religious fanatics. The religious intolerance and contempt for our culture was much greater in these women than the prejudice, that I have experienced from the common Scandinavian towards
them.

There are also many mainstream Muslims, who are doing what they can to integrate into the Western culture, who are productive; and some of them have even been elected into public office.

The tolerance in Denmark has been great for many years. The Danes worked together to help the Danish Jews to safety during the second world war. However, the way that radical Islamic Imams are able to publicly call their members to holy war, in Denmark, and praise the 9/11 attacks in the US is outrageous to me. They publicly make statements like “Denmark is Allah’s country and does not belong to the Danes”. It is their stated goal to subvert our culture and overturn democracy and create an Islamic state in our country. The Muslim politicians in Denmark who are elected into public office by Danes are under death threats from radical Muslims in Denmark, who denounce democracy as an affront to Allah. And these radicals, still, are allowed to continue. After 9/11, there was a big radical Muslim gathering in Copenhagen (attacking the US for the action in Afghanistan and justifying the call for a holy war). They had their own security guards at the doors screening who was allowed to enter. Women had to enter through a separate entrance from the men and sit in a separate section. This finally became too much for the Danish feminist movement, who contended that this was a public meeting, and it was unworthy for the
women in Denmark to be treated this way. They have been able to reach and help very few Muslim women because of the inherent fear and apprehension of our culture.

I could go on and on. It is a complex issue. And, don’t get me started on the recent honor killings in Denmark or how Danish teachers are prevented from teaching a typical Danish high school curriculum in the Copenhagen inner city schools, because secular Danish literature is considered blasphemous and an affront to Allah, and the way Danish girls and woman are denigrated and bad-mouthed by Muslim boys and men.

Many Muslims are on welfare in Europe, so the radicals are extreme not because of poverty, but because of the extremist views, that they took with them, when they entered our countries. I honestly wish that they would have been able to leave those behind and try to integrate and make the best of two cultures.

I haven’t covered the issue of radicals recruiting maladjusted and confused second generation Muslims living in Denmark, who are, sometimes, into crime and vandalism, and who do stop these activities once they join the radical movements. Now they have something else to channel their rage into.

A concernend Dane

BlackSun / February 3rd, 2006, 1:35 pm / #2

A Dane–

Thanks for your story. It should be required reading for all those who seem to need to advocate ‘tolerance’ of things in society they would not tolerate themselves. We must get back to the basics of human rights and common sense. Islam tramples both.

Francois Tremblay / February 4th, 2006, 8:14 pm / #3

A theocracy means overgrown children are running the house. All I see in these pictures are scared, violent, overgrown children.

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Pathetic