Thank you all. I posted my article because I felt strongly enough about the issue. However, I didn't think my opinion mattered much.
I did not originally intend to add more to that post, but since I did get comments about it and since it was not very clear at times what I was trying to say, I thought I would explain a bit more.
- I did not accuse any specific group of being Nazis. I titled my post the way I did because I thought that was a good way to sum up the entire Blogosphere discussion. I also chose it because I thought it would attract attention. I didn't realize I would get so much.
- Little Green Footballs is not the first to suggest that learning more about your partners today might save you trouble in the future. Vlaams Belang had written about it quite extensively. It is sound advice and it does not hurt to clear up people's positions on various issues. It might "serve the Islamic cause" in the short term, but it will only strengthen the liberal agenda in the long run.
- I did not mean to label SIAD/SIOE in any way. I wanted to bring facts for thought:
1. Left wingers/Anarchists have been wrecking havoc in Copenhagen for weeks.
2. Left wingers/Anarchists have been violently clashing with extreme right groups all over Europe for much longer. Reading in the news about "extreme rightists attacked by left wingers" is not that rare.
Therefore, having a group of protesters brutally attacked is not the start of political violence in Denmark, nor is it the sign that Eurabia is upon us. Does political violence only start when it's directed at your people?
A commentator on my post wrote about SIOE:
I was in Brussels in september and met quite a few demonstraters who were leftish, anarchists and an occasional communist.
I'm sorry, but that does not make me feel any better. I don't like the radical left any more than I like the radical right. Besides, the two ends of the political spectrum meet quite more often than people would think.
Btw, the SIAD protest was tagged as "anti-Islam" in the Danish media. Apparently, it was a protest against Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission participation in the Second Arab-European Dialogue on Human Rights and Terrorism. The Saudis were there to complain about European abuses of Muslim human rights. My suggestion to SIAD is to work on PR.
Interesting to note, the Saudis' demands were met by a Vatican counter-demand for more religious freedom in Muslim countries.
- I got several replies about my claim that the extreme right is more dangerous to Europe than Islam. I have voiced this opinion in the past, and it is directly connected to my interest in this topic. Islam and the extreme right are not separate issues. I believe that the existence of such a big group of immigrants, especially one which is as contentious as Muslims, is causing Europe to shift more and more to the right. This is a danger to Europe's liberal values and to its minorities.
Is the crescent a bigger threat than the swastika? There are maybe 5% Muslims in Europe. How many Muslims are currently in European parliaments?
How much did (far) right wing groups get in past elections?
Austria - Austrian Freedom Party (27%, 1999)
Belgium - Vlaams Belang (11% national, 24% Flanders)
Switzerland - Swiss People's Party (29%)
France - National Front (16% 2002, 10% 2007)
Denmark - Danish People's Party (13%)
(Several of these parties were either in government or very close to it)
I do not automatically disqualify the European right, and it is important to remember that Europe is not the United States. Denmark is the country of the Danes and they have no other, and the same goes for every other nation-state. The original ethnic Americans might have felt the same but they weren't asked when the Europeans came a conquering.
The problem is that the line between what is normal and what is scary, can be pretty easy to cross and hard to distinguish. I don't have the answers on how to do it right. Luckily for me, I'm not a political party and I don't have to come up with the answers either. I just fear it will go wrong and I think every step should be critically examined to make sure it doesn't.
- Nobody said anything about my Cologne pictures. I originally brought both pictures because one looked normal and the other scary (the one that appeared on the news), but if you notice - there are no skinheads and no racist or neo-Nazi slogans to be seen in either picture. The scary looking people are German police (I think). Maybe it says something about how the media subtly affect our way of thinking.
And now.. back to the news.
