{"id":2035,"date":"2017-06-20T07:58:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T07:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/new\/?p=2035"},"modified":"2017-07-13T11:10:39","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T11:10:39","slug":"the-problem-is-not-migrants-coming-in-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/20\/the-problem-is-not-migrants-coming-in-but\/","title":{"rendered":"the problem is not migrants coming in, but"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<ul class=\"content_preface_bullets\">\n<li>Uninhibited by the obvious fear of their citizens, the EU nevertheless carries on its immigration policies.Ironically, Western political elites consider this clearly widespread sentiment against Muslim immigration &#8220;racist&#8221; and &#8220;Islamophobic&#8221; and consequently disregard it &#8212; thereby empowering anti-immigration political parties.<\/li>\n<li>\n<hr id=\"system-readmore\" class=\"mceItemReadMore\" \/>\n<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Islam has no place in Slovakia&#8230;. [the problem is not migrants coming in, but] rather in them changing the face of the country.&#8221; \u2014 Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"itemprop_articlebody\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p>Europe, so many years after the Cold War, is ideologically divided into a new East and a West. This time, the schism is over multiculturalism. What Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n has termed &#8220;liberal babble&#8221; continues to govern Western Europe&#8217;s response to the challenges that migration and Islamic terrorism have brought, especially to personal security.<\/p>\n<p>The Western European establishment considers arming oneself against terrorists, rapists and other ill-wishers outlandish, even in the face of the inability of Europe&#8217;s security establishments to prevent mass terrorist atrocities, such as those that took place in Paris at the Bataclan Theater or the July14 truck-ramming in Nice.<\/p>\n<p>The European Union&#8217;s reaction to terror has been to <a href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu\/rapid\/press-release_IP-16-4464_en.htm\" target=\"_blank\">make<\/a> Europe&#8217;s already restrictive gun laws even more restrictive. The problem is that this restrictiveness contradicts the EU&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/firearms-united.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/2014-07_EU_Study_Illicit_Trafficking-commented.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">own reports<\/a>: these show that homicides committed in Europe are mainly committed with <i>illegal<\/i> firearms.<\/p>\n<p>In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, it is still normal to want to defend yourself. Last summer, Czech President Milos Zeman even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blesk.cz\/clanek\/zpravy-politika\/410026\/ivana-zemanova-uz-ma-revolver-prezident-vyzval-cechy-ke-zbrojeni-proti-teroru.html\" target=\"_blank\">encouraged<\/a> citizens to arm themselves against Islamic terrorism. &#8220;I really think that citizens should arm themselves against terrorists. And I honestly admit that I changed my mind, because previously I was against [citizens] having too many weapons. After these attacks, I don&#8217;t think so&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Since the president&#8217;s remarks, the Czech Interior Minister, Milan Chovanec, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radio.cz\/en\/section\/curraffrs\/interior-ministry-wants-to-give-czech-firearms-holders-the-right-to-use-their-weapon-against-terrorists\" target=\"_blank\">proposed<\/a> extending the use of arms in the event of a terrorist attack. He explained that despite strict security measures, it is not always possible for the police to guarantee a fast and effective intervention. Fast action from a member of the public could prevent the loss of many lives.<\/p>\n<p>Such reasoning, often seen as laughable in Western Europe, reflects an understanding of the fear that has become a recurring theme on the continent. In Germany, a recent poll <a href=\"https:\/\/gatestone.eu\/germans-fear-terror\/\" target=\"_blank\">showed<\/a> that two out of three Germans are afraid of becoming the victim of a terrorist attack and 10% perceive an &#8220;acute threat&#8221; to their safety. Among women, the figures were even higher. 74% responded that they sometimes feel unsafe in crowded places, and 9% said they felt permanently threatened and scared.<\/p>\n<p>Western European leaders, on the other hand, pretend not to understand this fear. In 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unibe.ch\/news\/uniaktuell\/the_online_magazine_of_the_university_of_bern\/uniaktuell_from_2015\/sections\/university\/besuch_bundeskanzlerin_angela_merkel\/index_eng.html\" target=\"_blank\">asked<\/a> how Europe could be protected against Islamization. Merkel, who does not move without her own <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/fotostrecke\/fotostrecke-die-insignien-der-kanzler-macht-fotostrecke-101204-13.html\" target=\"_blank\">personal security team<\/a> consisting of 15-20 armed bodyguards around her, working in shifts, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unibe.ch\/news\/uniaktuell\/the_online_magazine_of_the_university_of_bern\/uniaktuell_from_2015\/sections\/university\/besuch_bundeskanzlerin_angela_merkel\/index_eng.html\" target=\"_blank\">answered<\/a>: &#8220;Fear is not a good adviser. It is better that we should have the courage once again to deal more strongly with our own Christian roots.&#8221; In December, she told members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who were asking how to reassure the public about integrating migrants, &#8220;This could also broaden your horizons.&#8221; (This is the same Merkel, who in 2010 <a href=\"http:\/\/uk.reuters.com\/article\/uk-germany-merkel-immigration-idUKTRE69F19T20101016\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> that multiculturalism had &#8220;utterly failed&#8221;).<\/p>\n<table class=\"mceItemTable\" style=\"margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 600px;\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"max-width: 600px; border: 1px solid black;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gatestoneinstitute.org\/pics\/2360.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 82%; margin: 4px 6px;\">German Chancellor Angela Merkel (center) was asked how Europe could be protected against Islamization. Merkel, who has a personal security team of 15-20 armed bodyguards around her, working in shifts, answered: &#8220;Fear is not a good adviser.&#8221; (Image source: Paralax video screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>As Western Europeans are discovering, however, that the state is increasingly unable to protect them, they have begun acting on their fears:<\/p>\n<p>In France, a survey showed an increase of almost 40% in gun license requests since 2011. &#8220;Before the beginning of 2015, it was only a vague trend. Since the <i>&#8216;Charlie Hebdo<\/i>&#8216;, Bataclan and Nice attacks, [gun license requests] have become a growing phenomenon&#8221;, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/london\/2017\/01\/03\/soaring-number-belgians-gun-licenses\/\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> <i>Le Nouvel Observateur.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>In Belgium, requests for gun license applications soared in one major province, Li\u00e8ge, doubling in just five years. &#8220;The explanation may lie in the current security context, which generates feelings of insecurity among the population&#8221;, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/london\/2017\/01\/03\/soaring-number-belgians-gun-licenses\/\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> officials from Li\u00e8ge&#8217;s Arms Service, the state body in charge of granting gun licenses in the province.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of mass sexual attacks by migrants in Cologne, major German cities all <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/london\/2016\/01\/15\/2782719\/\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> an increase of requests for weapons permits. Cologne police estimated that they received at least 304 applications within just two weeks of the mass sexual assaults. In 2015, the city&#8217;s police force saw only 408 applications total over the entire year.<\/p>\n<p>Switzerland has also seen a drastic rise in gun permit applications, with all 12 cantons reporting an increase from 2015. Interim 2016 figures show a further escalation. &#8220;There&#8217;s no official explanation for the rise, but in general we see a connection to Europe&#8217;s terrorist attacks,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-europe-attacks-guns-idUSKCN10Y19U\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> Hanspeter Kruesi, a police spokesman in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen.<\/p>\n<p>Gun sellers in Austria also said that interest in weapons grew after a large number of refugees arrived. &#8220;Fear is very much a driving force,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-europe-attacks-guns-idUSKCN10Y19U\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> Robert Siegert, a gun maker and the weapons trade spokesman at the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n<p>Uninhibited by the obvious alarm of their citizens, the EU nevertheless carries on its immigration policies. &#8220;I believe Europeans should understand that we need migration for our economies and for our welfare systems, with the current demographic trend we have to be sustainable,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.presstv.ir\/Detail\/2017\/02\/09\/509751\/EU-Mogherini-ageing-population-immigrants-economy\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> Federica Mogherini, the EU&#8217;s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. She added that the continent &#8220;does not and will not close its doors&#8221; to migrants.<\/p>\n<p>Mogherini is probably not interested in a recent Chatham House <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/europe\/most-europeans-want-muslim-ban-immigration-control-middle-east-countries-syria-iran-iraq-poll-a7567301.html\" target=\"_blank\">study<\/a>, in which an average of 55% of the people across the 10 European countries surveyed wanted to stop all future immigration from mainly Muslim countries. Only two of the countries surveyed were from Eastern Europe. A ban was supported by 71% of people in Poland, 65% in Austria, 53% in Germany and 51% in Italy. In the UK, 47% supported a ban.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, Western political elites consider this clearly widespread sentiment against Muslim immigration &#8220;racist&#8221; and &#8220;Islamophobic&#8221; and consequently disregard it &#8212; thereby empowering anti-immigration political parties.<\/p>\n<p>Several countries in Eastern Europe, such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, have refused to take in more migrants, and several Balkan countries have completely closed their borders.<\/p>\n<p>Czech President Milos Zeman has openly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-3403603\/It-s-impossible-integrate-Muslim-community-Western-Europe-says-president-Czech-Republic.html\" target=\"_blank\">stated<\/a>, &#8220;The experience of Western European countries which have ghettos and excluded localities shows that the integration of the Muslim community is practically impossible&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/mar\/06\/slovakia-election-anti-immigration-pm-wins-but-loses-majority\" target=\"_blank\">dismissed<\/a> multiculturalism as a &#8220;fiction&#8221;. He has also refused to accept EU-agreed quotas on relocating migrants <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/robert-fico-islam-no-place-news-slovakia-muslim-refugee\/\" target=\"_blank\">saying<\/a>, &#8220;It may look strange but sorry &#8230; Islam has no place in Slovakia.&#8221; He added that the problem is not migrants coming in but &#8220;rather in them changing the face of the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Western Europe has predictably responded with accusations of &#8220;Islamophobia&#8221; and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/sep\/14\/milos-zeman-czech-leader-refugees\" target=\"_blank\">fanning hatred<\/a> towards minorities and refugees&#8221;. One EU state, Luxembourg, even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/sep\/13\/expel-hungary-from-eu-for-hostility-to-refugees-says-luxembourg\" target=\"_blank\">suggested<\/a> expelling Hungary from the EU for its refusal to toe the EU line and, according to Luxembourg, for treating asylum seekers, &#8220;worse than wild animals&#8221;. Hungary&#8217;s prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, in turn, harbors little respect for the way that his Western European colleagues have shaped politics: &#8220;We are experiencing now the end of an era: a conceptual-ideological era,&#8221; Orb\u00e1n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2016\/sep\/13\/expel-hungary-from-eu-for-hostility-to-refugees-says-luxembourg\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> supporters in 2015, &#8220;Putting pretension aside, we can simply call this the era of liberal babble. This era is now at an end.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>Judith Bergman is a writer, columnist, lawyer and political analyst.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uninhibited by the obvious fear of their citizens, the EU nevertheless carries on its immigration policies.Ironically, Western political elites consider this clearly widespread sentiment against Muslim immigration &#8220;racist&#8221; and &#8220;Islamophobic&#8221; and consequently disregard it &#8212; thereby empowering anti-immigration political parties. &#8220;Islam has no place in Slovakia&#8230;. [the problem is not migrants coming in, but] rather<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2036,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions\/2036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}