With Merkel's Foes in Disarray, Germany Defies the Trump Trend

[hollodero]

(04-24-2017, 01:30 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Sadly, and please bear with me, I think Europe, and Germany in particular, are attempting to assimilate large numbers of people with a cultural outlook in diametric opposition to western democratic values.

Oh I do bear with you, why wouldn't I. And I can't really disagree, as much as I'd like to. They are indeed in diametric opposition, and this problem needs to be talked about and addressed.
And there are problems.
I just try to give that the weight it has. Islam won't be the end of western civilization. Refugees don't bring a significant rise in crime rates (until now), they don't threaten our way of living, they don't undermine our values and beliefs and laws and customs, and they are not the ones with the bombs. But many are assimilating without accepting, and ever since the European Turks voted for Erdogan in large numbers, I have to adapt my point of view. I always thought at some time we have to support a more secular Islam and immigrants are a good aid in doing so, but that obviously isn't working. 

(Stupid Erdogan-voting Turkish immigrants, they make me angry, I find myself agreeing with Geert Wilders on that particular issue. You vote for an islamic de facto-dictatorship in your country, why stay in the freedom-loving democracy and not go live in said country then. Bad fits, I'm not for forcing them to leave, but I actually feel they should leave. See, I can be harsh.)

I don't think stopping immigration is the answer though.
Concerning the current "influx", I still think we have a moral obligation to help those fleeing death and destruction. The pictures of the Sarin attack just vizualized what is going on day in day out in Syria, killing, massacring and so forth. Some flee Assad and other gruesome murderers, but many of the refugees flee radical Islam too, they are not here to promote it. Our position gets a bit tricky if we refute to help those fleeing radical Islam out of refusal of radical Islam. 
Merkel took a brave stance, wise or not so wise - a humanitarian one that doesn't benefit her in any way, and that I feel needs to be respected in a politician. I think the problem starts with what happens with the people after they are allowed to stay. There we fail. Miserably.

(04-24-2017, 01:30 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: If that is a loaded term I am not familiar with it, honestly.  As previously stated I find Islam as generally practiced in the middle east to be inimical to western democratic values.  I do not think this is a radical or ill formed opinion.  

Your opinion is not ill formed. Denying the truth in these words is.
Cultural suicide just takes it too far :) (and it's loaded.)