Fear of the other
In two crystal clear paragraphs, Joost Lagendijk is quoted today in The New York Times:
“A lot of people, progressive ones — we are not talking about nationalists or the extreme right — are saying, ‘Now we have this religion, it plays a role and it challenges our assumptions about what we learned in the 60’s and 70’s,’ ” said Joost Lagendik, a Dutch member of the European Parliament for the Green Left Party, who is active on Muslim issues.
“So there is this fear,” he said, “that we are being transported back in a time machine where we have to explain to our immigrants that there is equality between men and women, and gays should be treated properly. Now there is the idea we have to do it again.”
So it is finally official. It is not only the right wing, the one that is scared. We too. If the right is scared because the invading muslims are transforming their sacrosanct dutch culture of the fifties, now the progressive left is also scared that the invading muslims are transforming their sacrosanct dutch culture of the sixties.
I reallly regret the quotation. One can always hope that is taken out of context, but probably the New York Times don't do that. It is a real sad message, surprisingly coming from one of our most successful politicians. Joost, rightly so, is respected inside and outside groenlinks by his delicate work at the commission of the European parliament that handle the integration of Turkey to the EU. It is shocking to hear this message from him.
Is it possible that the fear that Joost put out are the reasons that groenlinks has been so long so silent on the right wings attacks on the multicultural society? Is it possible that all this time the verdonks and the fortuins of this world have make us realize that there are, after all, reasons to be afraid?
Personally, I found the declarations of Joost very wrong. Precisely now, when a second and third generation of migrants is struggling to find their place in Europe, precisely now, when being an allochtoon in the netherlands means that you have it harder to get a job, that you are going to get a lower salary, and that is likely that your education is worse, precisely now should be the time in which groenlinks goes hard for integration, and not for assimilation. Today, the problems that the migrant face in europe are real hard core problems: education, labour and housing. To go on hammering about the culture, that sacred cow of the right, is not only discriminant, but useless.
I really hope that Joost was misquoted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/world/europe/11muslims.html?ref=world
posted by Unknown at 12:04 PM
2 Comments:
Als je dat citaat zo los leest is het meer een constatering van iets dat gebeurt. Het zegt nog niets over integratie, over wat moslims zouden moeten doen of juist niet. Hij ziet dat er een angst is, en wat dat betreft heeft hij wel gelijk. Zowel onder links als rechts is die angst er. Alleen maakt rechts die angst waarheid door repressie en anti-beleid, en links kiest de weg voor het samenleven en integratie.
(overigens is dat iets dat los staat van de islam. gelijkwaardigheid van man en vrouw is vooral cultureel; geloven zijn vaak naar beide kanten interpretabel en er zijn ook zat moslimvrouwen (compleet met zonder hoofddoek) die juist claimen dat de islam zeker in die tijd erg veel voor vrouwen heeft betekend in positieve zin. de islam heeft hetzelfde probleem als het christendom en het bedrijfsleven: de top is een groot old boys network dat door de vrouw opzij te schuiven direct 50% van de bevolking niet meer als concurrent voor die toppositie heeft)
6:23 PM
Yes, it is a constatation. But beware of the context. The title of the article is that links in europe -as well- begins to be scared of islam. And we are not. In my view a politician should be very sharp deciding what has to be constatated. Bolkenstein also constatate (probably the wrong english verb, maar vooruit) that the multiculti samenleving was a failure, back ten years ago.
For the rest, I just agree with your...
9:08 PM
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