If only we had had the good sense to kick the Irish out of Ireland.
Nice name calling. 
Do you think that Benjamin Netanyahu is also a xenophobe? What about the Dalai Lama? Maybe they just are acting normally in not wanting their country to be changed significantly to that of another culture? Is that so unreasonable?
In terms of evidence, I think that Bolkenstein, while a politician, is pointing out what the ADL has also noted.
As I noted above, that’s also seen in France and Sweden. The middle eastern conflict gets played out in Europe.
Of course when referring to the ADL you fail nite they’ve been staunch opponents of immigration restrictions.
Isn’t the ADL interested in inflating the threat of anti-Semitism? Let’s be honest here. (I recently watched a good documentary about the topic, titled ‘Defamation’, which is why I’m bringing this up).
And isn’t Bolkenstein, who never was an EU Commissioner for anything that had to do with Muslim immigrants, but who was a member of a Dutch party (VVD) that often flirts with anti-Moroccan attitudes, also interested in inflating the threat of anti-Semitism?
and maybe people from the East and who are Muslims don’t think too highly about what Americanized means when it’s all about skateboarding, computer games, comic books and dating, reality TV, Dancing with the Stars or the Kardashians…seriously who would apart from Americans?
If all the Muslims were to be ‘thrown out’ of Europe then the entire economy would be affected because the Muslims actually own huge amounts of it and it’s land and real estate especially in the major cities and financial districts.
In fact the UAE and Oman were just recently allowed by the UK to travel there Visa FREE. Qatar and Saudi also own or have shared ownership of lots of businesses and banks and real estate throughout Europe. And in the USA too.
Er… you are from the Middle East aren’t you?
You may be in denial but we Middle Easterners are just as into crap pop culture as Americans.
When we have videos like this playing 24/7 it’s ridiculous to pretend otherwise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEZ9fhdDGs4
and this as well.
From that Pew Report
“A significant minority (21%) of Muslim Americans say there is a great deal (6%) or a fair amount (15%) of support for extremism in the Muslim American community.”
Although 21% may be a “significant minority,” it’s still a pretty high percentage to me…
From the same report, 1 in 20 (5%) are favorable or somewhat favorable to Al Qaeda. About 1 in 12 (8%) of US Muslims consider suicide bombing against civilians often or sometimes justified to defend the religion of Islam against its enemies. (The Pew report refers to this as “negligible.”) If there are 2.5 million Muslims in the US, this is about 125,000 individuals in the US who admit to a poller that they feel at least somewhat favorably toward Al Qaeda.
Do you have a source for this? The news reports I read seem to focus almost exclusively on the difficulties Sweden has had with Islamic immigrant populations.
Is there another category of Swedish immigrants having a similar degree of problems integrating?
Gypsies, maybe?
I, too, would love to see some relevant statistics.
I mentioned this before in the previous page: Sweden’s census does not collect data about people’s religious beliefs or ethnic backgrounds. That makes it awfully difficult to know which groups integrate better/worse, so we have to deal with personal experiences. Sorry about that!
In my experience, the Latin American refugees of the 1970s had a hard time integrating, I’ve met a few second-generation Chilean-Swedes who reject being Swedish despite having been born here.
If I understand correctly, Syriacs are mostly Christians. Their integration problems are also well-documented to the point that, well… they have their own football teams
Another interesting case would be Kurds. The majority of them are Muslims, but I’ve also met quite a few atheists and I believe there are some Zoroastrians. It would be interesting to see if Muslim Kurds have more trouble integrating than Christian Kurds. But as said, all of this depends on personal observations
And how many individuals in the US feel at least somewhat favourably to bombing abortion clinics, for example ? 5% of any population is insane. A poll cited upthread has 6% of the general population stating that bombing civilians is always justified. So 19 million (and change) individuals are A-OK with state terrorism. That’s a little more scary, no ?
On the fridays of Lent, Holy Friday and Ash Wednesday. “Friday abstinence” is an additional, voluntary devotion.
But yeah, add all of Christianity to the list of “all-encompassing religions”.
What about good pop culture? I certainly know that’s available worldwide as well, but I raise the topic because I’m unhappy at the prospect of people associating America, or the West in general, with our stupidest offerings. Actually, I feel for kids right here in the US growing up in sheltered environments in which their parents are convinced the whole outside world is vile.
Alternative rock, intelligent film, and graphic novels, among other things, have played such a defining, satisfying role in my life that I’m disturbed by the prospect of young people being ignorantly kept away from it all.
I am not aware of any poll showing 5% support among any large religion for abortion clinic bombing. Do you have a cite for that?
Which specific poll are you referencing that shows 6% of the general population thinks bombing civilians is always justified?
Er… trash pop culture is popular all over the world. Soap operas, to take one example are huge in most of the Middle East.
That said, what is “trash” and what is “good” is in the eye of the beholder.
Perhaps, although if people are leaving (like in the example above from France) and in Malmo because they’re getting attacked, harassed, it suggests it’s more than just fear mongering by the ADL.
In any case, the title of the thread should probably be the many benefits of bringing Muslims to Europe as the onus should always be on those who want to make changes to existing societies.
What about in relation to Israel?
Exactly, that’s my point.
Not every beholder’s eye is equally well-qualified. In most cases, a reasonable consensus emerges. Contrast The Smiths with Wham!, for example, or Faith No More with Motely Crue, etc.
Actually, I believe they’ve been very critical of Israel’s treatment of asylum seekers, while noting it’s better than Europe’s, though I could be wrong.
That said, considering the views you’ve expressed about sub-Saharan immigrants, whom you regard as genetically inferior, I’d assume you feel Israel wasn’t tough enough.
Netanyahu may or may not be a xenophobe, but he is a politician who caters to the most xenophobic portion if his electorate. The Dalai Lama speaks against a military occupation of his country.
You have also, not surprisingly, moved the goalposts. Bolkenstein was cited as “evidence” that Jews were being run out of the Netherlands, not simply a commentator on relations between immigrants and native Dutch. What are the actual numbers for Jewish emigration?
Quoting two groups whose purpose is alarmist cries of doom without providing any numbers is nothing more than rhetoric. (And, particularly in the case of France, anti-semitism is such significant part of their history over the last 150 years that blaming it all on Muslim immigration without further evidence is just silly.)