Libertarian Commentary on the News, 16 JAN 2016, #16-02E  by Nathan Barton

A clash of cultures, clash of world views, and the resulting violence are themes throughout recorded history and no doubt in all of unrecorded history as well. When two (or more) groups of people, each with different social norms, religions, attitudes towards property and “polite society” and morals, are forced into contact, there are sparks. If there are aggravating circumstances, those sparks can ignite all kinds of trouble, including violence on a large scale. And that can result in what today is called “genocide” and more.

In the past few weeks, some very significant events have taken place in Europe, and particularly in Germany. Many of these events were predicted (more or less) because of the migration of millions of people from the Ummah (the Muslim world, also called Dar Al’Islam) in 2015. But that migration is not the only cause. Just as important as these incidents, beginning with New Year’s Eve, is the response to them by various individuals, and groups, including various governments. In the weeks since the start, more information has been revealed about past events (not just in 2015 but before). This in turn has triggered more reactions, and inevitably, more predictions about what will happen both immediately and long term.

I first read about the events in Koeln (Cologne), Nordrhein-Westfalen State, Germany, during the weekend of New Year’s. It took until Wednesday for it to really hit the news and commentary in the United States, and continued to generate new headlines in Germany, for the past fortnight.

As reported by Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, on New Year’s Eve in downtown Koeln, between the Hauptbahnhof (Main Railroad Station) and Dreikonigsdom (Three Kings Cathedral), a crowd of several thousand people was the target of a huge number of criminal acts of aggression, including (as reported so far) at least 200 (originally reported as 90) cases of physical assault and theft (groping, coupled with theft of phones and purses) of women, and at least one rape.

Mama’s Note: Now that is very interesting. I didn’t read much about all this myself, but my impression was that there were HUNDREDS of rapes, not “at least one.” The problem, as I see it, is the lack of effective self defense (total dependence on government for safety), and the insanity of going out at night into a crowd of thousands of strangers, wherever they came from.

One common theme is that all of the reported perps were of “Arabic or North African” appearance. Although police on the scene were “stressed,” the initial official reaction (through the weekend and the first week of the new year) was “relaxed.” Or in other words, “no big deal; typical New Years rowdiness.” The official line was then (and apparently still is, weeks later) that such “criminality” will not be tolerated (again) and that all allegations are being investigated by both Stadt (local), Lander (state), and Bundes (federal) police. It took more than a week before some suspects were identified. As of the 13th January, 30 men HAVE been identified, of which at least a dozen were recent (2015) migrants.

But the situation appears now to be much more than a local incident in Koeln (one of Germany’s premier cities): similar incidents took place on New Year’s Eve in many other German cities, including Stuttgart and Berlin (the capital). Indeed, the Berlin incident (as reported and commented on by me in recent columns) involved firing of handguns and firing of fireworks at other people, plus the groping, fondling, beatings, and reported rapes.

There are substantial claims that the media (both print and broadcast), either in coordination with, or as demanded by, local authorities (Stadt and Kreis), attempted to hush up these incidents. Other reports have come of similar events in cities in other European countries, including Sweden, Poland, Belgium and Nederlande.

At the same time, statements by various politicians and political leaders, including Bundeskanzlerin (Chancellor) Angela Merkel, seem to blame the women victims themselves and warn against blaming “refugees” for the rampage. Women, we were told, must be more careful about what they wear and what they do. A Green politicians warned bluntly against blaming refugees. Indeed, the Deutche Welle and other news stories shied away from mentioning Muslims as the likely perps. Despite the fact that virtually ALL “Arabic and North African” men in Germany ARE Muslim. Heaven forbid any profiling take place. (Der Spiegel at least was willing to address the Muslim issue in Germany.)

Now, the context:

First, all of Europe, including Germany (and shockingly, Sweden and Denmark), seems to be suffering the greatest epidemic of rape since the Red Army occupied Eastern Germany in 1945. Indeed, Sweden now has the highest rate of REPORTED rape in the world. (Remember, that what Sweden or Germany or the US might count as rape is NOT necessarily rape in Muslim countries, where it is only rape when it is (a) not consensual and (b) witnessed by a minimum of four men. In many Islamic societies, being raped is an example of marital infidelity or impurity in an unmarried woman.) Sexual abuse, including abuse of very young children (as in the UK) is on the rise. In several cases, rape has been followed by other torture, killing, and desecration of the body.

Second, in 2015, several million people, reportedly including a large percentage of unaccompanied males of “military age” (18-30 or so), have migrated into Europe: 1.1 million into Germany alone, from the chaotic areas of the Ummah: Mesopotamia (eastern Syria and Iraq), Lebanon, Egypt, Libya. “Arabic and North African” in appearance, of which reportedly 95% or more are Muslim. They have flowed across Europe, from the south and southeast, and reached Britain and Scandinavia.

Third, they join many millions of Muslim inhabitants throughout much of Europe, including Algerians in France (some third or fourth generation), Morroccans and others in Spain and Portugal, Libyans in Italy, Indonesians in Nederlande, Pakistanis in the UK, and Turks and various Balkan-origins in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. This migration began in the 1950s and has continued for a half-century and more. Although most of them share a “common faith” they have a variety of languages and social/cultural backgrounds. But the single largest group are Arabic in speech and culture. AND (key!) most have NOT assimilated into their new countries’ society.

Fourth, Europe’s native populations, from the Irish in the Northwest to the Croatians in the Southeast, from Portugal to European Russia and the Baltic States, have gone beyond “zero population growth” (that old environist goal) to not even replacing their own dead. This is one reason for the half-century-plus immigration: the need for what Germans call “Gastarbeiter” (guest workers) to keep the economy going has driven that. And such immigration has been viewed as “necessary” if not “good.” Especially by politicians.

With this situation, the cause for alarm over the New Year’s Eve attacks and similar incidents becomes clear, as I will discuss in Part II. And discuss “uncovered meat.”