generalspeaking

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Situation Impossible

"Many people around the country are unhappy and may think now is the time to teach the government a lesson."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Refugee families walk through fields under mountains towards the Greek-Macedonia border on March 03, 2016 in Idomeni, Greece [Getty Images]

Ironically, as Egypt, the most populous of Arab countries, is struggling with militant Islamism, and attempting to moderate the fanatical elements of Islam on Egyptian politics, Europe finds itself engulfed in a tidal wave of Muslim refugees and asylum-seekers and economic migrants clamouring for the opportunity to find their future in the wealth and political stability of Europe. The presence of huge numbers of newcomers from across the spectrum of Muslim countries from the Middle East to South Asia and Africa, does not represent a new introduction of Muslims to Europe.

The Continent has experienced previous waves of both immigration and refugees entering it over past decades, and has slowly absorbed those numbers. In so doing, as though by the stealth of unobtrusive and gradual immigration, Europe found itself confronted by the reality of its traditions, customs, heritage and social contract overwhelmed by a non-native religion, traditions and social customs entirely foreign, their numbers threatening the stability of European traditions.

The greater the number of Muslims that settle within a Western, democratic society, the more entitled the introduced community have felt to special considerations outside the traditions, laws and customs of their hosts. Muslims speaking in positions of authority have stimulated and incited their communities to demand equality of a nature never before insisted upon. Not equality within the existing laws and societal mores, but those that transcend what was considered the norm, in recognition of Islamic ideology.

Europe has struggled with those conflicting and destabilizing conditions of having absorbed people of a religion and heritage and culture utterly unlike their own for years. And Europe finds itself completely embattled by the presence of hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees whose humanitarian needs must be addressed, but whose presence represents yet another massive infiltration threatening the very nature of Europe.

Because Chancellor Merkel stood outside and apart from her European peers in deciding to invite and to support all refugees and migrants who could reach Germany's borders, she has gone from being hugely admired to being condemned for Germany's decision on her watch to absorb an unbelievable million-strong Muslims all of whom must be identified, processed, housed, fed, given medical attention, completely overwhelming the country's capacity.

She has been forced by predictable circumstances to reverse her previous position. She has also been the major contributor behind the EU's offer of almost $9-billion to Turkey to aid it in its support of its immense refugee camps of close to three million Syrians, and to convince Turkey it must do more to prevent the refugees from setting out from its shores across the Mediterranean to Europe. Turkey now gains access to its citizens able to traverse Europe at will.

Europe's emergency in attempting to cope with unassimilable numbers of needy people while tending to the ongoing needs of their own has resulted in a tragedy of massive proportions as refugees and immigrants are mired at borders refusing to open to the ongoing influx. The backlash of resentment from Europeans whose way of life and prosperity has been threatened is predictable. A growing xenophobia is obviously present expressing their own frustrations and outrage.