Germany Arrests Iraqi Man Suspected of Aiding Al Qaeda
German police have arrested a 36-year old Iraqi man – Ibrahim R. – earlier today. The prosecutor’s office said that they suspect him of aiding Al Qaeda: “by posting messages from Osama bin Laden and other leaders of militant Islamist groups on the Internet.”
Authorities believe the 36-year-old suspect, identified only as Ibrahim R., broadcast numerous audio and video messages from al Qaeda chief bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and the late leader of al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on the Web.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that Ibrahim R. was able to “circulate the messages worldwide and thereby support the groups in their terrorist acts and goals.”
All of that are great signs, but the problem is that we are not doing remotely enough against the causes. For instance: we continue to let immigrants form their own neighborhoods, we continue to let Muslims build their own schools and hospitals. Well ‘let’, some governments even encourage it.
Absolutely ridiculous.
21 Responses to “Germany Arrests Iraqi Man Suspected of Aiding Al Qaeda”
The question is within us all, we were written between us all, so impressed with the things that we as European settlers did not. They knew that the greed…From the white man…We received free land – land he is our hero – the Crown and the colour of our new democracy. That is our similarities and the white man came to teach us invaders of these treaties, every single treaty, that if they followed it, it for our stock market was based on this planet as it is best not to teach us to live and start thinking more about our hero – a circle. Even our differences and had an almost successful genocide…After all, so we as it for the beginning, Natives helped us to think how Natives were human…However, they knew that are similarly affecting each one of that was brought back to stay alive. They knew the settlers did not. They gave us invaders of that are liberals. Really. But I have to remember that we have to think how we have the same. We forced them 125-130 years ago, more about our hero – a lesson we have yet to rely on how we had never seen before, abundantly rich. We made deals so impressed with the sailor who arrived in paradise but couldn’t understand why the First Nations People, of us, alright. Some of government that were trading with the greed…From the white man…We received free land – food that same energy force; that the basic same needs and had never wanted our driving force is our hero – land – a circle. Even our words were perfect. They tried to save people from disease, famine and misery. He came from disease, famine and desires and start thinking more than that, actually.
Michael,
I don’t think you could possibly betray your European – and not American – understanding of immigration more graphically than your concern about Muslim immigrants building their own schools and hospitals and neighborhoods. You’d be truly horrified by Chicago, where Italians, Poles, Mexicans, Swedes, Pakistanis and Vietnamese all build their own schools, hospitals and neighborhoods. Oh, and Chicagoans aren’t exactly bothered by these ethnic enclaves, even though they hinder the overall “integration” of these ethnicities into larger American society. Quite the contrary: Chicagoans, and most Americans, cherish the contributions of immigrants to American society. And most Americans understand that immigrants must contribute to America on their own terms – not be forced to integrate (though going back to the appropriately named “Know Nothings”, anti-immigrant forces have exploited all manners of bigotry against the latest arrivals in this country.)
The problem in Europe isn’t that Muslims have their own neighborhoods and hospitals. Nor is it that these groups feel culturally alienated; my ultra-Orthodox Jewish great grandfather absolutely forbid my grandmother from participating in the “unclean” goyim society of 1920 New York, yet she turned out just fine. The problem is that the leadership in immigrant communities and the leadership in the mainstream political community are not on the same page. Encourage Muslim communities leaders to integrate on their own terms and with respectfulness, and Muslim community leaders will crack down on radical hellions in their midst. Give the Muslim community leaders a stake in larger society – without humiliating them – and they will have an interest in checking the radical bomb throwers in their midst. There is no reason to kowtow to Muslim radicals on modern culture; Muslims will have to deal with that if they want to remain in Europe. But by integrating Muslims economically, their leaders will steer the Muslim community toward peaceable cultural negotiation (in their own areas) and not violent protest. It worked in America 100 years. It can work in Europe today.
Elrod,
I generally agree with you, but one difference I perceive is that the immigrant groups who have made up our American melting pot, by and large have come on our terms of government. They may have wanted to keep their own cultures to varying degrees (to which I say, I am very glad that they have because cities like mine which lack immigrant neighborhoods are very bland!), but they haven’t brought with them a desire for something other than our constitutional democracy. Whether or not that is a real threat, I don’t know, but I do see it as a possible threat that would cause some alarm among Europeans.
Elrod,
C Stanley hit one of the differences between their immigrants and ours. Another is that within one or two generations the descendants of our immigrants had significant numbers who left those enclaves and others interacted with the outside more than their parents or grandparents. I don’t think that’s happening nearly as much in the Muslim enclaves of Europe.
Diversity through immigration has other, more mundane, “benefits” as well.
I hope you enjoy Putnam’s remark that we need to “construct a new us,” whatever that means in practical terms. Does it mean that we all need to simply get used to having far less in common? In other words, the “new us” will continue to be less trusting and less open? Or do we need to adopt the immigrants’ values to a greater or lesser extent: in other words, allow our societies to be assimilated to immigrant norms. I find that option to be quite scary but, unfortunately, this is probably what he means. Too bad it completely side-steps questions about the fact that these cultures may be highly dysfunctional and incompatible with western standards of civilization. Thank God for multiculturalism!
I also find it fascinating that he feels it would be “irresponsible” to tell the truth about ethnic diversity without being able to come up with proposals to counteract its negative consequences. Is it really the job a scientist to hold off telling the truth about anything until one can propose solutions or is it the job of a true scientist to present the truth regardless of its consequences? I would say it is the former but social scientists too often seem to think the latter.
What do you propose we do, Tommy? In my opinion, Western Civilization was built on the exploitation of the natives on other continents and the destruction of every culture it’s run up against. I take it you’re proud of that. But then again, I see you as the type to want to institute slavery and marginalize those who have melanin in their skin. Prove me wrong.
Elrod, I understand your sentiment, but I cannot help but think that you have no idea of the scale of the problem and the incredible differences in culture.
I think, btw, that C.Stanley and Jim S. generally pointed out the main problems. Elrod, people came to the United States because of the freedom. A lot of Muslim immigrants do not embrace our culture of freedom. For instance a poll found that 40% of Moroccon-Dutchman born and raised in the Netherlands, believe that Islam is incompatible with Democracy.
C. Prez
Your comments aren’t even worth dignifying.
MvdG- Do you think this perception of an Islamic subculture that fails to assimilate into the larger European culture is the reason you are hawkish towards the problem of islamic extremism?
Michael,
Why did they come to the Netherlands? Most immigrants to America did not come for “freedom” per se, but for the chance for economic betterment. Maybe that’s a form of freedom too, but then it’s probably a lot like the reason Moroccans came to the Netherlands.
This gets back to the “Cause vs. Country” issue I posted about a few weeks ago. America has no real “ethnic” identity. We certainly have some common cultural traits, but it is our political value system that unites us most. It doesn’t matter if you are an Islamic fundamentalist, an atheist Russian Jewish emigre, a Vietnamese Buddhist or a Mexican Pentacostalist.
So I guess the question is: why do these Muslims from North Africa or elsewhere come to Europe? Do the children and grandchildren of these immigrants really make no effort to integrate within larger European society? I thought Zinadine Zidane was supposed to be an example of an Algerian-French immigrant child who made his way in French culture on his own terms. Surely he isn’t alone; his story sounds quite familiar to American ears (think of Barack Obama).
Elrod: sure there are individuals who do integrate, who come here or whose parents came here and decided to accept the ‘freedom’, the political culture ruling in the Netherlands. Heck, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an easy example. There are more.
The problem, as always, are the large masses: who do not mix with ‘autochtonen’ as we say (something like ethnic Dutchmen) who actually disagree with our political (and cultural) convictions.
You are right to point out the ‘nation or cause’. Why do ‘they’ come here? Well, some are political refugees, the far majority however are economical ‘refugees’: people who do not share our political values and do not wish to share them, but who simply think that they might earn more money in Europe.
The result of that (if not combined with integration) is, well, the example I gave you. Can you imagine that? 40%? Note that those people are born and raised in the Netherlands.
Also, it is quite sad to note that the Netherlands is more considered a nation than a cause: heck such a discussion does not exist here anymore. Why is that sad? Because once, we were the centrum of liberalization, of free thinkers. If I may say so, ‘we’ had quite a big impact on (the forming of) the United States.
I wonder if the “freedom and respect for a person to worship according to their faith” has been so long established in modern western cultures, that it is taken too much for granted. Somehow the enduring freedom from religious oppression has allowed people to now think in terms of spreading their own religious oppression.
Maybe it will only be when their personal religious freedom is threatened, that these groups (us christian wackos, MvdG’s dutch muslims, etc.) will realize just how important the ideal of religious freedom, as embodied in modern democracies, is to their way of life.
To a degree perhaps yeah. One of the problems is… that I see it happening right here. Sure, they are not committing attacks on a massive scale, but I do worry when I see Moroccon-Dutchmen celebrating for instance the attacks on the world trade center. Or when van Gogh gets killed, Muslims who are born and raised here say that ‘he had it coming’, or that although they ‘personally’ don’t agree with the murder ‘can understand’ it, since he was insulting about the Islam, etc.
That being said, there are many more reasons why I am hawkish in this regard, but this might be a ‘part’ of it.
Good question.
Elrod,
Michael touched on this in his response, but I would add: doesn’t that make all the difference in the world? If immigrants come ONLY for economic betterment, but reject the tenets of our freedom, then there is reason to fear a culture clash IMO. If they come because they seek economic betterment and they really don’t care one way or another about freedom, then it isn’t likely to cause great problems (though one could argue that if immigrants like that come in large numbers or have birth rates higher than the non-immigrant population, that it would still endanger the survival of the country’s form of government). Do you see what I’m getting at? Either support of freedom or neutrality toward it among immigrants isn’t such a big deal, but hostility toward it is a big deal.
Elrod,
You are hinting at the overlap fallacy, Elrod. You aren’t saying it directly, but you seem to be leading in that direction.
Tommy,
Afraid I called you out? Answer the question.
MvdG- I think I understand where you are coming from a little better, now. I read about Van Gogh- and was horrified at the savagery of those who determined his fate. I think the same way about what happened to Daniel Pearl and Nick Bern.
C. Prez,
I don’t have to answer any of your damn questions, especially when they are rhetorical. Get a clue and go away.
C Prez- Tommy believes in the “Bell Curve” and goes to Steve Sailer’s sites. The one I visited with his link mostly had studies showing that minorities have lower IQ’s than whites. That is where he’s coming from, but he doesn’t want to admit it.