I've been watching Europe for years

Submitted by kim (United States), Mar 16, 2007 at 17:24

Many years ago I studied multi-ethnic conflict in graduate school. One rule of thumb I learned is that minorities become more vocal once they reach 10% of the population. Another observation was that there are three factors which are instrumental in causing inter-group conflict: these are when the various groups differ in terms of 1) religion; 2) language; and 3) skin color.

The more factors that are different, the greater the liklihood of conflict. As such, I have watched with interest as the Muslim population has grown in Europe and have not been surprised to see the conflicts arise as their population has grown. Generally I am liberal in my political stance, but in this case I do believe that Muslims represent a different breed. I'm sure that some people would say "sure, that's what they said about the blacks", but this situation really is different.

I truly believe that if given the chance that Muslims will attempt to impose their way of life on the rest of us. The situation here in Minneapolis is a case in point with Muslim cabdrivers recently refusing to carry passengers who have alcohol. At what point do we stop acquiesing to other groups' religious and cultural beliefs? Afterall, they are in OUR country. Some groups from Africa still want to continue the practice of genital mutilation of their women; should we allow this just because "we should respect their culture?" That's crazy! It's time that we proclaim that just because a practice or belief is religious does not mean that we have to take extraordinary measures to accomodate it if it conflicts with reason and the smooth functioning of society. Period. I do not trust the Muslims. I believe that Islam is a violent and repressive religion. I wish that someone could prove me wrong in this belief as I sure wish that I believed otherwise.

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