Euro
Jules Crittenden writes:
“Europhobia” is on the rise across Europe, where many Christian, Jews and secular Europeans are menaced and misunderstood — some on a daily basis — the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia said Monday in a new report.
The Vienna-based center, which tracks ethnic and religious bias across the 25-country European Union, said westerners routinely suffered problems ranging from terrorism attacks to assassinations to relentless assaults on their deeply held values, laws and cultural traditions.
It called on leaders to strengthen policies on integration of Muslims, and on Muslims to “engage more actively in public life.” It also told them to “get over” nonsense like the Motoons, start ratting out the murderers in their midst, and if they want to live in western democracies, “figure out which end is the dog and which end is the tail.”
“The key word is ‘respect,'” said Beate Winkler, director of the group. “People need to feel respected and included. We need to highlight the common ground that we have.”
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many of Europe’s nearly 500 million residents feel “they have been put under a dreadful fear of horrible death by terrorism,” Winkler said, adding that for thousands of innocent commuters in Spain and Britain, the simple act of commuting to work became a nightmare of death, mayhem, terror, tragedy and irrecoverable loss. And that’s not mentioning the bizarre hatred France’s Arabs have for other people’s cars.
Although the center conceded that it had been hampered by incomplete data that make Europhobic acts “underreported and underrecorded,” it listed hundreds of cases of violence or threats against Europeans in the EU since 2004.
The original article is… somewhat different, but Jules seems to be spot on.
I would like to read more research into it, but when I look at my personal experiences, especially the last couple of years, I agree with Jules’ version.
The last few months, I am actually starting to wonder whether European schools shouldn’t pay more attention to Europe’s rich history and culture (and to the history and culture of the specific European country the student lives in). Of course we are taught the ‘facts’, but there is one thing missing, at least in the Netherlands that is: we are not taught to be proud of our nation.
To Americans, this may sound strange; the situation seems to be quite different in the U.S. However, in – again at least – the Netherlands, there is almost a fear of being too nationalistic, of being too proud of one’s country. Perhaps we should get rid of that attitude: it’s time to be proud again; proud of our history, proud of our culture and proud of the things ‘we’ accomplished and can accomplish in the future.
If the children of some immigrants aren’t taught to be proud of (or at least respect) the European country they live in at home, they should be taught to be proud of it at school.
UPDATE
Just shoot me. Post has been edited. Never.post.while.in.hurry.
Second UPDATE
European blogger Cernig responds to Jules Crittenden.
I don’t agree (especially not regarding his view on Jules who is a good friend of mine) with everything Cernig writes (just as I don’t agree with everything Jules writes – who is more a columnist and less a political analyst – I’m not pretending to be either, but columnists have a particular style), but it is interesting to read ‘both sides’ (as in political sides – Europeans don’t agree on this issue either) of the transatlantic debate.
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