Missing the point

Submitted by Anonymous (United States), Jan 30, 2010 at 10:16

"well, it then becomes an EU issue as well. are mexicans, brazillians etc allowed to migrate to the EU without being marrieed to EU citizens?"The EU does not have open slather borders - for good reason. I as an Australian cannot simply migrate to Holland or another EU country"

I think you are completely missing the point here. Allowing immigration does NOT mean open borders and yes Mexicans, Brazilians and so on CAN immigrate to the EU today without marrying EU citizens - they just have to fulfill other criteria (education, economic factors etc) to migrate but none of that criteria today is "you can't be from a non-Western country" like Wilders is proposing. America where I live has robust immigration driven mainly by economic factors without having open borders. For instance, the Nobel prize winners in Chemistry and Physics this year are both immigrants from India and China who came to the US as graduate students. Under Wilders' scheme, they would both have been barred automatically. And by the way, an Australian can easily migrate to the EU or America provided of course that he/she has the right skills and education.

The larger point you are missing is that Islamic fundamentalism will never be defeated without a united front. When you bring in your petty cultural battles into an already complicated global scenario - the problem will only get worse. Some EU countries have needlessly dragged Sikhs into the controversy over religious headgear. It is fine to ban burkahs and other Islamic symbols but it should not be done in a way that causes suffering for Sikhs or Jews or any other peaceful religion. I would never support ideas that widen the net to discriminate against everybody non-Western in the name of "cultural protection" - this is how it started in Germany in the 30s. If that is your battle then it is similar to all the hate groups that live on the fringe.

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