"These Germans, these atheists, these Europeans don't shave under their arms and their sweat collects under their hair with a revolting smell and they stink," said the preacher at the Mevlana Mosque in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, in the film made by Germany's ZDF public TV, adding: "Hell lives for the infidels! Down with all democracies and all democrats!"
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
3 comments:
Dead link from the title line: please repair. thx
Works for me. The server must have been down.
Germany has the same sort of Moslim population as Holland, minus the large number of Maroccans that Holland has.
The Dutch, (and a couple of educated Maroccans I know here) regard the Maroccans in Holland as largely a criminal element.
The Turks, on the other hand, have been there for a while and, while resisting total assimilation, have blended better into the social fabric. They still like to keep their daughters "pure" and all that, but they are less visible these days.
The Dutch are widely regarded abroad as being hospitable to foreign cultures. In truth,there are several levels of acceptance and hospitality.
In Amsterdam,the Hague or Rotterdam, it is fairly easy to fade into the woodwork if you are a foreigner. Any foreigner who is white and speaks good Dutch can stay and work without much problem--with or without official sanction.
Out in the countryside,however, its a different story. There are many villages, entire areas in Holland, where it is not even sufficient to be a blond Dutchman in order to be accepted. In those villages, you would have to be in the same church and the "same sort", or you would find yourself frozen out of local society and life would become a bit difficult.
There is no magic solution. People are the same everywhere. Only the veneer of social pressure makes them accepting of strangers and adaptable.
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