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| Why do they hate us? Because we give them money... |
| 2002-09-22 |
| Glenn Reynolds points to this Mickey Kaus item titled Does Welfare Cause Terrorism? Part 27... Sorry for the link-to-a-link-to-a-link approach, but this is important, so read 'em all... Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal makes the linkage between the two as clear as it can be made in an excellent piece on Muslim extremists in Germany. The key paragraphs: "It's no coincidence that the hijackers came from Germany," says Bassam Tibi, a scholar of Islam at Goettingen University, who is himself a Muslim immigrant from Jordan. "Here, they could live outside of society. No one even expected them to work." ...It's probably incredibly old fashioned of me, and probably racist to boot, to point out that "the Devil finds work for idle hands." The U.S., as Kaus points out below, makes the same mistake by supporting its own low-paid liesure class, which is also the home to the greater part of our crime rate. (If you don't believe that, watch a few episodes of COPS. Don't email me to bitch until you have...) It's all very well and good to want to spend one's time doing "good deeds," but one man's good deed can also be another man's massacre. If one has nothing to do but sit around all day and go to the mosque for indoctrination by raving fanatics, what's the surprise when after awhile one becomes a raving fanatic oneself? As described by Johnson, the fitful but increasing German efforts at assimilating Muslims take the form of eliminating their ability to cry "discrimination" and restricting immigration. The mystery left unanswered is why Germany doesn't take the simpler, more obvious step — allowing immigration, but denying immigrants the welfare benefits that support an unassimilated opposition culture.... The reason is entirely political. We have the same piggy squealing here when such measures are proposed. Even though I know nothing about the subject, I'd guess that Muslims in Germany tend to vote as a bloc... Mightn't such a hostile culture be supported by workers? Sure. But people who come and work (the vast majority of Germany's Muslims, apparently) are unlikely to be able to lead a life so apart from the society they live in that they can be like Mr. Barakat: Mr. Barakat says the city around him is of no interest. Walking down Steindamm on his way home, he ignores a dazed junkie combing her hair. "I don't care where I live," he says. "I could be anywhere."If he doesn't care where he lives, why doesn't the German government allow him to live in Damascus? Or Kampala? For that matter, why doesn't Mr. Barakat strike out for Kampala himself? Quick answer: It's the combination of liesure to pursue his own ends and the company of others like him. It's damned significant that Abu Qatada, bin Laden's "Ambassador to Europe" was also on the British dole, and that Kaplan, the Turk jugged for trying to establish a "caliphate" in Germany was on the German dole — even though both of them were rolling in dough from... other sources. Let work do the work of assimilation! ... Suddenly the Republicans who denied welfare benefits to new immigrants as part of the 1996 welfare reform look a bit more sensible, no? ....[Note: WSJ link requires subscription, but print editions of Friday's paper are available on most newsstands until Monday.] |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |