A Query

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Dec 1, 2010 at 17:41

The anti-Muslim Xenophobia mentioned here intrigues me.

"Günter Wallraff, a German reporter, pretended to be a Turk in 1985 and thereby demonstrated the troubles a Gastarbeiter faced. I would not want to be looking for a job in Germany, then or now, with the name Mohammed."

Has anyone tried the same stunt, but calling himself Butros, Yuhana, or Hovannes? Or, with the name Premchand or Harilal? That is, would swarthy people who are clearly non-Muslim come up against the same native European hostility met by Mehmet and Ahmad? What of Israelis or Maghrebi Jews who have relocated to Europe? To they face a similar rejection on the continent that spawned anti-Semitism?

I would certainly like to be in Dr. Pipes' "Amen corner". I promise I'll back off when I see "moderate Islam" checking the growth of Islamic radicalism. However, I have a strong suspicion that some of Europe's "anti-immigrant backlash" may be fueled more by the people who cheered the murder of Theo van Gogh, made Malmo Europe's rape capital, or tried to murder Salman Rushdie's publishers rather than by people who are nostalgic for the Third Reich. That is, this may be a rumbling of a European instinct--shared by everyone else on this globe--to protect themselves against a perceived threat.

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