representative standpoint

Submitted by myth (Germany), May 28, 2013 at 05:28

Cyrus,

a few ( compared to the number of Turks ) Persian immigrants live in Germany. I had conversations with many of them. They all confirm your standpoint which I conclude is representative of the Persians in the West. During these conversations my Persian counterpart would take the initiative and warn me about the dangerous consequences of Islamist thinking.

Faced with the nonchalance of their Western friends and neighbors the Persians here all shake their heads. Looking at the outer appearance of mainly orthodox Arab muslims in Germany they feel victimized. Why is that? Most Germans would take a Persian for an Arab and identify him or her with the orthodox muslim five meters across the street. As a consequence the perfectly Western-minded anti-Islamist Persian suffers the silent resentment directed against orthodox muslims. They unwillingly find themselves under the dark cloak of radical Islam. "medieval nonsense" I hear from Persians when they spot a woman in a burqa. They explain to me as you do. They speak from bitter experience, not from an academic standpoint.

As for the Turks my experience is two-fold. Never have I heard a Turk shouting allahu-akhbar when Turkey scored a goal in a football Euro- or World Cup. They would even use the word "Islamists" referring to the AKP. Yet, the mosque attendance in Germany seems quite high to me.

I use the word "Persian" to distinguish the people here from the regime in Iran.

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