Islam – our problem. Provocative, isn’t it? Yes, deliberately. But please read through. 
This entry is about something that actually enraged me. An incident much similar to the one that made me decide to start this blog in the first place and actually also thematically related. I wrote it a week ago and then first forgot to post it and then last week my modem broke down but now here it is.
Wednesday night I was watching TV. Just what I usually do on most weeknights and always on Wednesdays as I’m a TV-show junkie. But that’s not important here. So I watched my usual shows and then remembered I had seen the trailer to Stern TV earlier that day and one of their topics was how this girl was doing, who had been separated from her Siamese twin five years ago. So I watched Stern TV. You know, when I turn on Stern TV I do know what to expect. I expect topics that are sensational, topics the public wants to know about and speak about and so they are also presented in a manner that everyone can follow. I don’t expect too scientific discussions or too controversial things, I do however expect a certain … level. And that was missing in the show from last Wednesday. The topic that I’m talking about is not the little girl. That wouldn’t make much sense in relation to my title, either, would it? No, what I’m talking about is one of their other topics: Islamism among young German men, most of them having what we so “eloquently” call a Migrationshintergrund meaning their parents came from abroad but they were born and brought up here in Germany. It is big topic and I agree that we need to speak about what makes those young people decide to enter terrorist camps in Afghanistan; I also expect to hear different opinions on this but the way it was discussed on Wednesday night was adultering, almost populist, fueling fear and hatred, I found it simply horrible.
But let me summarize. Their example were two young men in their mid-twenties, born and raised in some town in the Ruhrgebiet, I don’t know which one it was, but their parents came from Morocco. They made a big deal of how very integrated they were, that they were well educated, one of them studying, the other doing an Ausbildung, and so on. Since a few months these two haven’t been seen in their hometown but several videos had surfaced in which they were seen in some desert-looking environment, looking severe. They were armed and, well, you know those terrorist videos in which “they” threaten the western community. The important thing was that they spoke German. Then they also had a former friend of one of the two who spoke about the changes that had come over his friend graduately. It all seemed very dramatic, he stayed in the dark and wouldn’t show is face, as if he were scared. Up to this point I followed with interest and as I said, I do think that this is an important topic. What followed though was, in my view, outrageous.
They introduced an “Aussteiger”. A young German man, interestingly without the immigrant background as far I could tell, who had been an Islamist, a Muslim fundamentalist and who had openly justified Jihad and violence in the name of Allah not so long ago. Apparently saw what he was getting into at some point and decided to turn his back from “it”. I think he was 26 years old and now studied Aconomics I believe. He looked it, anyway. Now he had set his mission to informing the public of … evil Islam.
Yes, you read right. In his opinion the whole religion was corrupt, evil, and justified violence. The best thing, reading between his lines, would be to simply keep people from being Muslims. I wish I could directly quote him but I can’t. I was getting so mad that I couldn’t memorize, let along write down anything. I know that there are people out there who think like that. And well, that’s his opinion, but it’s just not true. Period. Full stop. It isn’t. And I bet Günter Jauch knows that. I’d be gravely disappointed if he didn’t. I mean more disapointed than I already are in him now. Because he didn’t say anything. I mean he could have just pointed out that crazy islamist suicide bombers are not representative to the religion of Islam. In my opinion it would have been his duty to pointit out. But he didn’t. And he as the host just has the authoritative position there. He can, with a simple remark, make a statement less grave, his role even is to see that multiple views are represented and that things will not be misunderstood. Either he or the executive directors – whoever that is – have made a terrible mistake, a mistake of which they should apologize.
Now that I’ve said this I can go on and comment myself. In every discussion being related to religion my role will always be the one of the mediator. It’s what I have been taught these past three years at uni. The first thing we learned was epoché, distancing oneself twice, firstly of the subject matter and secondly from one’s own views. That is of course an ideal state and not really possible but this is where I’m coming from. I said mediator was my role. So which are the parties between I stand here? The one, obviously, is Religion, Islam to be precise, maybe even European Islam. The other is the “mainstream West European society”. And let me tell you these two do need mediators – desperately – because they are not able to work together directly most of the times. And they have to, because Islam is part of that society. Muslim migrants or people with a immigrant background, who are Muslim live in almost all west European countries and they are not going away. They will stay here and they will not give up their traditions or their religion. So we better learn to live with our Muslim neighbour. Integration does not mean that they stop living their religion or their traditions. Take a look at Goodbye Deutschland and tell me if the Germans immigrating to some other country do what this society expects of its immigrants.
In my opinion the European Islamic community is close to being openly discriminated against. And this is dangerous. Da beißt die Katze sich in den Schwanz, as we’d say in German. See, to become an Islamist, in my opinion, you must hold a certain grudge against western society before someone recruits you, at least in some latent way. And are you actually surprised to find that these young, seemingly integrated people do hold such a grudge? No, how could that be possible, we all tolerate them so well, let them build their mosks, accept that someone with a darker skin is German, wouldn’t mind if “our” girls dated “their guys”. I would laugh if it all weren’t so grave. We are producing them ourselves I tell you by our negative opinion about their traditions, life style and religion. If we would for one just stop portraying Islam as the evil religion, if we would teach our children from early on that there are people that believe differently and that it is absolutely ok, if we would let our teachers wear a hijab if they want to and let them explain why they do so themselves, we’d take a first step at making Islam a European religion. Europe always considers itself Christian but the only point for this history. Christianity and Islam have developed not so far away from each other geographically, the one was only faster on it’s way to Europe, the other one took a detour.
