A new poll shows the German people's disatisfaction with Islam is becoming stronger and stronger:
Experts fear new conflicts after a study published this week showed most Germans doubt the Western and Islamic worlds can peacefully coexist. Mistrust of the 3 million Muslims living in Germany appears to be growing.
In spite of official attempts to promote dialog among religions, distrust of Islam continues to grow, with 60 percent of Germans expecting tension between traditional German society and immigrants from Muslim countries, according to an Allensbach study commissioned by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
“Germans are increasingly of the opinion that a lasting, peaceful coexistence with the Islamic world will not be possible,” the researchers said in the survey, released Wednesday.
Some 56 percent of Germans said they believed a “clash of cultures” already exists, partly a result of recent incidents that received a large amount of media attention, according to the survey’s authors Elisabeth Noelle and Thomas Petersen.
The case of a Berlin “honor killing,” a quarrel over two Bonn students who wore burkas to school and discussions concerning increasing schoolyard violence among immigrant children have all made headlines in the German press recently.
“In view of the diffuse feeling of being under threat, and the suspected intolerance of Islam, the readiness of Germans to show tolerance to the Muslim faith is sinking,” Noelle and Petersen wrote.
Asked if they though Christianity and Islamic could co-exist peacefully, 61 per cent of those surveyed said they believed there would always be “major conflicts” between both faiths.
Some 91 per cent said they associated Islam with oppression of women, up from 85 per cent in 2004.
The statement that Islam was dominated by fanaticism was shared by 83 per cent, compared to 75 per cent two years ago, the poll showed.
A total of 71 per cent said Islam was intolerant, up from 66 per cent in 2004.
Asked if there should be a ban on the building of mosques in Germany as long as the building of churches in some Islamic states is forbidden, 56 per cent agreed, said the poll.
There is even considerable backing for ending Germany’s constitutional right of freedom of religion with regard to Islam, the poll showed.
Asked if strict limits should be imposed on the practice of Islam in Germany to protect the country, 40 per cent said they would support such moves.
Ok, so I have been warning for about a year now that if our good friends, the moderate Muslims of the world, do not begin taking concrete steps to destroy the Jihadi ideology within their ranks, then hatred for Islam would rise, and the loving moderate Muslims amongst us would begin to feel the heat, which had previously been directed only at Islamofascism.
This poll confirms what I have been saying. Of course, Germany is always on the avant garde of ethnic and religious conflation and the hatred which comes from such conflation. The German people, historically have a talent for grouping people and ostracizing them, and sometimes even killing those with whom they do not feel compfortable.
The moderate Muslims of our world would do well to take the results of this poll under strict advisement.
Message to moderate Muslims: Your days are numbered in the West, if you don't fix the problems in your house.
Let me also say that the governments, the politicians of the West would also be wise to understand that the results of this poll say something about their future viability. If our governments do not cut out the PC crap, and do it very soon, whole governments, and their charters/constitutions, etc., will fall ...
and that will not be a pretty sight.
The leaders of the West need to understand that uor world is changing dramatically.
9 comments:
I see what you are saying, Kris. However, it is up to them to determine whether or not that is true.
The point of this post is that their window of opportunity is coming to an end sooner than later.
Ok, so I have been warning for about a year now that if our good friends, the moderate Muslims of the world, do not begin taking concrete steps to destroy the Jihadi ideology within their ranks, then hatred for Islam would rise, and the loving moderate Muslims amongst us would begin to feel the heat, which had previously been directed only at Islamofascism.
In other words, nominal "Muslims" had better come out and fight Islam.
The moderate Muslims of our world would do well to take the results of this poll under strict advisement.
Message to moderate Muslims: Your days are numbered in the West, if you don't fix the problems in your house.
Strictly speaking, moderate Muslims don't exist, because those who are moderate do not qualify as Muslims. How do you expect those who are not proper Muslims to fix that which what they have already de facto abandoned?
Excellent point, anonymous. Furthermore, I think that many others who pass as "moderate" Muslims are only waiting to see who will come out on top before they throw their loyalties to the fundamentalist side or continue to bide their time.
Moderate or Ortodox, it has all to do with doubt. The fact is, with every step forward you leave an injustice behind. You have to go forward for survival. Growing older, you become aware of the mountain of little injustices. At that moment, when you have a vengefull god, you can only become more orthodox. Later on, to prevent others from the same faults, you will become a fundamentalist.
There is doubt of god also. The force of indoctrination in Islam is so great that nearly no one will become apostate and look at the balance of the things he did.
Your analysis is good, Kris. I don't wholly disagree with you. However, I do believe that human beings have free will and inborn creativity, and they can change and positively effect ANYTHING.
Nothing terrestrial is more powerful than the human mind.
However, I do believe that human beings have free will and inborn creativity, and they can change and positively effect ANYTHING.
There are, however, three questions you need to consider with Islam.
1. Does the will to change Islam actually exist among Muslims?
2. In the unlikely event that a changed and benign version of Islam should emerge, will it be a viable version, or will it inevitably be transformed back into the original Islam at some point?
3. If human beings change Islam into something different from what it has always been, is it correct to categorize the result as Islam?
The third point seems to be the one people have most problems with. Many people imagine that if only Muslims choose to behave and think differently, then their change in behaviour changes Islam. However, Islam is not defined by the actions and beliefs in the name of Islam, but by the "holy" scriptures of Islam. And, as we all know, the possibility of interpretation in Islam is severely limited.
Same change in public opinion is happening in France:
http://tinyurl.com/plnxy
Same change of public opinion is happening in France.
I am not sure if the extreme right partys have the answer. Extreme right has very totalitarian instincts. What will rest of our freedom? At the moment they're needed in opposition anyway. Here in Belgium, there is the VB, whith connections to Neo-Nazi groups and a violent past that makes me shiver in the same way as the islamist are doing. The other partys took a line that was opposite to counter the extreme right several years ago. This brought them in complete denial and blocked them from the beginning to take a clear look at the immigrant problem. In fact, they went to the islamist and seduced them to counter the growth of the extreme right. Doing that, the socialists and liberals have lost contact with the source of their ideology, which is based on equality an anti-totalitarianism. PC is one of the terms they developed to counter extreme right, now they're drowning in them. It's over whole Europe the same (excluded Danmark), The political choices that are made, are primorly not to act like extreme right. I don't like them. All voices that have to be heard. The worst example is here in Belgium, PC translated in putting a Cordon Sanitaire around the VB, and exclude them from politics. Not taking part in the government and denial of their retoric made them the biggest party. Green, left and liberals are governing without opposition, making a sick state.
About free will: All human beings have acces to free will and inborn creativity. History learns that use of free will is not so evidend. You can't find very much acts of free will in history. Fact is, one act of free will has millions logical results. (consequenses?) It are these that make the change over time. To act in free will, you also have to use your creativity. Following a path of thinking, following hypotheses that are, at first sight against al morals where you stand for. Acts of free will and creativity of people like Eteraz, need also the logical results before the change has manifestated. For Islam, I give this another few hundreds of years. THe world has not the time to wait that long.ez
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002999203_usimage17.html
"Bad news, America: World doesn't like We the People
By David Wood
Newhouse News Service
WASHINGTON — The United States long has been a source of irritation for the rest of the world, but the news is worse this year.
While Europeans and Asians and Arabs increasingly have disliked U.S. policies or specific U.S. leaders in recent years, Americans were liked and admired.
Polls show an ominous turn. Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries such as Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest.
"We found a rising antipathy toward Americans," said Bruce Stokes of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which interviewed 93,000 people in 50 countries over four years.
Few analysts expect more than marginal improvements, short of another Sept. 11.
"In my judgment, you're going to see a lot of this hostility disappear only when various countries really feel they need friendly relations with the United States, probably for their own security," said Richard Solomon, a veteran diplomat and negotiator who is president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a federally funded nonpartisan think tank. "It will probably take some major event for that to take place."
The dislike is accelerating among youth, Stokes said. For example, 20 percent of Britons younger than 30 have an unfavorable opinion of Americans, double the percentage of 2002.
The problem, Stokes said, "is Americans, not just [President] Bush."
In increasing numbers, people around the globe resent U.S. power and wealth and reject specific actions such as the occupation of Iraq and the campaign against democratically elected Palestinian leaders, in-depth international polling shows.
America's image problem is pervasive, deep and perhaps permanent, analysts say, an inevitable outcome of being the world's only superpower.
Stokes and his colleagues at the Pew Research Center, a respected, nonpartisan public-opinion group in Washington, D.C., found that fewer and fewer people see the United States as a land of high ideals and opportunity. More than half those asked in France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Britain said the "spread of American ideas and customs" was a "bad thing."
This represents a major challenge for the United States, which, after a period of aggressive "go-it-alone" foreign policy, again is coming to rely on allies and international partners.
For example, the United States has counted on Britain, France, Germany and the United Nations to persuade or coerce the Iranian government to abandon its nuclear program. And it shares its military burden with 9,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and 20,000 in Iraq.
Credibility problem
Keeping the peace, winning the war on terrorism and other critical goals are achievable "only if people like you and trust you," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center.
Instead, Kohut and his associates find U.S. credibility eroding, even among NATO allies.
Almost half those polled in Britain, France and Germany dispute the concept of a global war on terrorism, and a majority of Europeans think the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. More than two-thirds of Germans, French and Turks think U.S. leaders lied about the reasons for war and think the United States is less trustworthy than it once was.
Kohut found a significant decline among those holding "favorable" views of the United States. In Brazil, 52 percent held a favorable view of the United States in 2002; that had dropped to 34 percent one year later. In Russia, the pro-U.S. portion of the population dropped from 61 percent to 36 percent over a year.
People also reject the U.S. lifestyle portrayed in films and TV. Asked where to find the "good life," no more than one in 10 people recommended the United States in a poll conducted in 13 countries, Kohut said. More popular: Canada, Australia, Britain and Germany. Only in India did the United States still represent the land of opportunity, he found.
No question this is bad news, but put it into perspective, Solomon said. "It's an attractive aspect of our culture that we worry about what other people think. The French couldn't care less if they make people unhappy."
Even friends are uneasy
Even among the United States' newest friends, such as India — where Bush in March signed an agreement on nuclear cooperation — there is "uneasiness about whether we have come too close to America and surrendered independence of judgment to the sole superpower," said Ambassador Salman Haidar, former Indian foreign secretary and head of its diplomatic corps.
The United States spends about $1 billion a year on international broadcasting and the public-relations campaign it calls "public diplomacy," run out of the State Department by former top Bush campaign operative Karen Hughes.
Separately, the Pentagon directs "information operations" and psychological-operations programs that have included paying journalists in Iraq to write favorable newspaper articles.
"We probably deserve a D or D-plus as a country as how well we're doing in the battle of ideas," Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said March 27 at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. "We're going to have to find better ways to do it, and thus far we haven't."
Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company"
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