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Europe's Muslims Hate the West
“Occidentophobia”: A refusal
to accept the essential concepts of life in the West.
Our Western values, culture and freedoms are what makes us who we are,
but it’s also those same core ideals that make us feel guilty. Guilty for
not doing enough or for doing too much. It’s time we stop scratching our
heads in dismay. It’s time we stop blaming ourselves, and our
Western way of life.
The Politico article below hits the nail on the head: as long as the
Muslim community continues to refuse adaptation to the Western “state of
mind, they will perpetuate resentment and a culture of violence.”
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Europe’s Muslims
Hate the West
Leon de
Winter – Politico
 The first reaction to the Brussels massacres among
postmodern European intellectuals was predictable: What did we,
Europeans, do to them, our Muslims? How could followers of a religion
that is proudly called “the religion of peace” commit these kinds of atrocities?
People like Peter Vandermeersch, the Belgian editor-in-chief of Dutch
newspaper NRC-Handelsblad, and Belgian writer David Van Reybrouck, both
accomplished intellectuals, argued that Belgium must have done
something terrible to deserve this. Their line of reasoning: The
terrorists’ fury must be a reaction to their inhumane treatment
at the hands of the West.
So, we blame ourselves in order to remain blameless. Safer to blame
our own societies and socioeconomic conditions than to blame the religious
and cultural concepts with which terrorists poison their own minds.
According to reports, the unemployment figure in Brussels’ infamous
Molenbeek neighborhood — now referred to as the jihadi hothouse
of Europe — is 30 percent. This is a relatively high figure in Western
Europe, but not unusual in southern European countries or the Arab world.
There is poverty in Molenbeek, but that poverty is relative. There
is no starvation, no homelessness, no lack of medical infrastructure, no
lack of schools.
Compared to average living standards in Morocco or Egypt, the average
living standard in Molenbeek is comfortably middle-class. Like in any
other Western European country, many Belgian institutions and
organizations offer support when families need housing, food, education,
and health care. Opportunities for success, and to study and become a
respected member in society, are countless compared to those that
exist in many immigrants’ countries of origin. Still, there is deep
resentment among the younger generations of immigrant Moroccan
families.
Immigration into the Netherlands from Morocco and Turkey is an expensive
phenomenon for the taxpayer: In the modern welfare state immigrants are
more dependent on the welfare state than the average citizen. Because of
a lack of higher education and the lack of non-skilled jobs,
immigrants absorb a higher part of unemployment and social security
payments than the average citizen. As a group, they receive more money
than they pay in taxes. They also show up much higher in crime statistics
than their numbers would justify. There are many success stories, but
there are also disappointing trends. Like radicalization. And the
situation in Belgium is even worse.
There is no
question that unemployment is much higher among Muslim immigrant
communities than among the general public. There are
two possible explanations.
The first goes something like this: The Belgian people are terribly
xenophobic and anti-Moroccan, and deny their Moroccan neighbors
opportunities to succeed in life. But if this were the case,
the theory can be applied to every Western European country, as
unemployment figures for Moroccan and other Muslim migrants
across Europe are remarkably higher than average. This would
indicate that European xenophobia has reached unbearable levels.
Why would Muslims choose to stay in societies that showed such deep
disrespect for their migrant population? Because they realize that an
unemployed citizen in a European welfare state run by infidels has a
better material life than an employed citizen in pious Morocco?
Moroccan-Belgians suffer from widespread exclusion, discrimination, and
suppression is ridiculous — and yet completely acceptable among
the politically-correct crowd. Life in Belgium is exceptionally good
and safe for migrants — if they are willing to integrate into their new
cultural environment, if they are willing to act as individuals, study
with passion and openness, and accept the secular system of the West.
There is no difference at all in socioeconomic status between youngsters
from a low-education, blue-collar Belgian background and
youngsters from a Muslim migrant background. Both have to struggle,
both have to overcome weak socioeconomic family situations. In Spain,
youth unemployment has reached 50 percent and the welfare state is
less developed than in Belgium, yet Spanish citizens aren’t blowing
themselves up in metro stations.
The other explanation for the high unemployment figures among Muslims in
Europe has nothing to do with exclusion and discrimination. A large
segment of the migrant population is doing just fine, but
a significant number — some say as many as 50 percent
— have not rid themselves of the mental and cultural conditions
that have kept their home country in its “developing
country” status. The denial of equal rights to women, the lack of
separation of state and church, bad education, excessive religiosity,
patriarchal machismo — these are all on display in areas with a high
percentage of migrants, including Molenbeek.
In December 2013, Professor Ruud Koopmans of the Berlin Social Science
Center published a study on “Fundamentalism and out-group hostility,” in
which he compared hostility among Muslim immigrants with hostility
among Christian natives in Western Europe. He writes: “Almost 60 percent
agree that Muslims should return to the roots of Islam, 75 percent think
there is only one interpretation of the Quran possible to which
every Muslim should stick and 65 percent say that religious rules are
more important to them than the laws of the country in which they live.”
In regards to Christian citizens he concludes: “Less than 4
percent can be characterized as consistent fundamentalists.”
On hatred of Jews and homosexuals among Europe’s Muslim population,
Koopmans finds: “Almost 60 percent reject homosexuals as friends and 45
percent think that Jews cannot be trusted. While about one in five
natives can be considered as Islamophobic, the level of phobia against
the West among Muslims — for which oddly enough there is no word;
one might call it ‘Occidentophobia’ — is much higher still, with 54
percent believing that the West is out to destroy Islam.” Recorded rates
of Christian hate toward Muslims hover around 10 percent.
“Occidentophobia” is an interesting term. It expresses
a refusal to accept the essential concepts of life in the West.
Young men like the perpetrators of the Brussels attacks have refused to
embrace the social codes of Belgian life. They were raised on the
idea that their religious ethics trump the ethics of the
infidels (close to non-existent, in their eyes, in any case).
Their second-rate socioeconomic status was therefore a humiliating
affront, an indignity to be destroyed.
Muslim integration into Europe societies is successful when Muslims
are willing to give up the mental confinement of their home
countries — countries, let’s not forget, which they left in
search of a better life. For as long as they refuse to adapt to
a European state of mind, they will perpetuate resentment and a
culture of violence.
What did “we” do to “them”? We opened up our cities, our houses, our
wallets. And in our secular temples of progress — our metro
stations and airports and theaters — their sons are killing themselves,
and taking our sons and daughters with them. There is nothing for which we
need to apologize. “Occidentophobia” originated in the Muslim
community. We need to demand they abandon it.
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