Vice News is completely terrible but I found this video to be instructive and a typical example of the
feelings held by many French Muslims. Even the title of this horrible bit of
video is offensive "Battling the Backlash." Backlash? What backlash?
Have Muslims been killed in France? When this aired the 129 victims weren't
even in the ground yet they try to make the case that Muslims are the true
victims.
My first question to the kid at the beginning and the
young woman wearing the hijab is why on earth would they choose to be
practicing Muslims in Paris of all places? By the mere fact that they live in
that city they have won the geography lottery so why would they want to
continue believing in fairy tales that proscribe so many things that in France
are taken as sacred (wine, sex, song, ham, et cetera)? They are both
young and intelligent. Why aren’t they atheists? Why the hell wouldn’t you want
to integrate into French society? The fact that they aren’t willing to accept
that French society is a fucking millions times better that that of their
ancestors in North Africa is the first lie of their existence.
The young Muslim boy practically spits out words like
"integrate" and "secular." He moans that he must celebrate
a day of secularity in France. Would he prefer that the country be ruled under
Sharia Law. He also mentions how oppressive it is for Muslims to practice their
religion in France which is simply a lie. France does not ban the wearing of
the hijab in public (as we see with the young woman in the video); it is
the niqab that is forbidden, as it should be. This ghoulish costume
violates everything we stand for in the West and is an insult to humanity. He
also says that many French Muslims are thinking of leaving France for some
place where they will feel more free to practice their religion. Don’t let the
door hit you in the ass.
Here is my problem with Muslims in Europe whether they
be native born or immigrants: we have already fought the war against oppressive
religious control and we won. They are making us fight it all over again and
this time against an even more intolerant and oppressive foe. In Spain the yoke
of Catholicism was thrown off only 40 years ago and Spanish society has
flourished ever since to a degree seen in few countries. Now Muslims want to
backtrack to an era in which religious leaders dictate our moral and legal
codes? It is profane and anti-democratic.
I will repost this great comment I found on The New
York Times website after the shooting at Charlie Hebdo in January.
A comment by Mor in the NYT:
The values of the Enlightenment are incompatible with
a fundamentalist religious belief of any kind. An evangelical Christian who
believes that the Universe is 6000 years old will feel like an alien in Europe
and/or the Silicon Valley. A cultural Muslim who appreciates the poetry of
Sufism but does not view the Koran as a literal message from God will feel fine
in the West. But if you believe that insulting your prophet merits death, then
you have forfeited your place in free society. The West is not a place but an
idea. The fact that most Western countries have failed to live up to their own
ideals of intellectual freedom and political liberty is regrettable but does
not invalidate these ideals. If you want to join the West and keep your
cultural identity, while embracing its core values, wonderful. If not, you are
not part of Europe and never will be.
Los valores de
la Ilustración son incompatibles con una creencia religiosa fundamentalista de
ningún tipo. Un cristiano evangélico que cree que el Universo es de 6000 años
se siente como un extranjero en Europa y / o el Silicon Valley. Un musulmán
cultural que aprecia la poesía del sufismo, pero no considera el Corán como un
mensaje literal de Dios se sentirá bien en el Occidente. Pero si usted cree que
insultar a su profeta merite la muerte, entonces usted ha perdido su lugar en
la sociedad libre. El Occidente no es un lugar sino una idea. El hecho de que
la mayoría de los países occidentales han fracasado a la altura de sus propios
ideales de la libertad intelectual y la libertad política es lamentable, pero
no invalida estos ideales. Si quiere unirse al Occidente y mantener su
identidad cultural, mientras abraza sus valores fundamentales, maravilloso. Si
no es así, usted no es parte de Europa y nunca lo será.
Update
