generalspeaking

Reverse Invasion

Isn't it perfectly perverse that countries that had once invaded other countries suddenly notice that those whom they had colonized, their land occupied, their natural resources absorbed, their people oppressed and then finally left to their own collapsed devices and bitterness, seek now to successfully reverse-colonize the geographies of the imperialists. Isn't there a kind of serene justice in that scenario? Yes. And no.

Is it enough that the former colonial powers repent their historical mastery of presence over the far less-advanced and vulnerable countries and populations they once lorded? Is it surprising that the memories of those who were once oppressed, although generations removed, stagnate in resentment? History does not have a habit of overturning itself; what has been done is forever done, and one looks to the future.

Europe, once so fractured by borders, heritage, traditions, language and culture, is suddenly a study in co-operation and co-ordination of resources and entitlements. That same Europe that finds itself struggling with the realization that it has been inundated with a gradual migration of their former colonies' inhabitants, seeking a better life for themselves.

Muslims from Turkey and the Balkans now represent four percent of the Swiss population, steadily accumulating a commanding presence in the past three decades. There are now 150 mosques and prayer rooms in that small, exclusive and very entitled country. The Swiss are alarmed at the non-absorption into their society of the faithful of Islam. They fear an eventual backlash a la Denmark to their resistance of the presence of minarets.

France, with its loathsome banlieues and their vast resentful fire-bombing youth, where North African Arabic is as oft-heard as French, agitates against the growing presence of mosques, in particular the $30-million Grand Mosque of Marseille. France's traditional culture is in the process of drowning in a vast and growing sea of anti-assimilationist Muslims, clinging to their own culture, traditions, religious ideology.

Western Europe is uneasily witnessing steadily expanding communities of Muslim immigrants, eschewing the greater social culture, values, and mores of the general community, and asserting their own. The diligent activities of mosque-building and clerical haranguing, of Islamic meeting houses, restaurants, the insertion of Muslim academics in hallowed halls of higher learning, are creating unease and distress.

Must then, the immigrant populations continue meeting in temporary and inadequate premises, rented halls, home basements, garages, to accommodate their need for consolidating their presence in their adopted countries, whose mores and values they have no need for? Is there a need to halt the inevitable? Is there any civilized manner in which social integration can be accomplished?

Europe is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan. Nothing can now stem the resolve,the living, teeming tide of reverse occupation; once the imperialist masters, now the reluctant hosts.

Labels: European Union, Human Relations, Human Rights

posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 27, 2009