July 6, 2007--Fanaticism LXXXII: Human Penguins
Who was it, Santayana, who said: “Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it”?
There are apparently some who both lived and remember history but are still in danger of having to repeat it. Case in point—a Holocaust survivor, a respected German-Jewish writer who lives in Cologne, Ralph Giordano. He has been leading the opposition to plans to construct Germany’s biggest mosque in this ancient city, home already to Germany’s largest Catholic cathedral and a significant number of surviving synagogues.
Fortunately Herr Giordano is not in the vocal majority, though who knows what most in their hearts really feel about the Islamification of Germany.
Thirty or so years ago industrial growth was so rapid that Germany needed to “invite” so-called “guest workers” to come for what they thought would be a while to do the work for which there were insufficient local workers or to take on mechanical and service tasks that young Germans were no longer willing to endure.
Well, nearly 3.0 million guests stayed on to become a version of permanent immigrants. Many came from rural parts of Islamic Turkey and brought with them their traditional forms of culture and religion. Depending on who you listen to, they either refused to learn German or any of the local customs, thus resisting calls to become integrated; or they were not welcomed by the “real” Germans and thus frustrated retreated into their own ethnic enclaves and ways of life.
Considering that the 9/11 plot was largely hatched in Hamburg, this latter view is not widely accepted or popular. But it may be closer to the truth as Germans struggle more and more with the proliferation, symbolically and concretely, of mosques next door. Even the one planned for Cologne, which is intentionally designed to be “modest” in size (the minarets at 180 feet tall would be only a third the height of the cathedral’s spires) and open and welcoming in feeling with its clear glass walls has engendered opposition if not ambivalence. Cologne’s Catholic leader, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, is not exactly opposed to its construction but said, “I don’t want to say I’m afraid, but I have an uneasy feeling.” (See linked NY Times article.)
But the one who should have the uneasiest of feelings should be Ralph Giordano himself. He who remembers from his own life the requirement under the Nazis for Jews to wear yellow Stars of David and the subsequent roundup and slaughter of most of his family, he above all should be very careful about what he advocates for fear of what that could call down upon any people, including himself, who embrace opinions, culture, and religious practices that are not sheltered within the majority.
He views mosques in Germany as “symbols of a parallel world.” He does not want to see women in the streets of Germany wearing burqas.” He says, “I’m insulted by that—not by the women themselves, but by the people who turned them into human penguins.”
Perhaps he is too old and addled to recall what his fellow Jews were called not so many years ago on those very same streets.
There are apparently some who both lived and remember history but are still in danger of having to repeat it. Case in point—a Holocaust survivor, a respected German-Jewish writer who lives in Cologne, Ralph Giordano. He has been leading the opposition to plans to construct Germany’s biggest mosque in this ancient city, home already to Germany’s largest Catholic cathedral and a significant number of surviving synagogues.
Fortunately Herr Giordano is not in the vocal majority, though who knows what most in their hearts really feel about the Islamification of Germany.
Thirty or so years ago industrial growth was so rapid that Germany needed to “invite” so-called “guest workers” to come for what they thought would be a while to do the work for which there were insufficient local workers or to take on mechanical and service tasks that young Germans were no longer willing to endure.
Well, nearly 3.0 million guests stayed on to become a version of permanent immigrants. Many came from rural parts of Islamic Turkey and brought with them their traditional forms of culture and religion. Depending on who you listen to, they either refused to learn German or any of the local customs, thus resisting calls to become integrated; or they were not welcomed by the “real” Germans and thus frustrated retreated into their own ethnic enclaves and ways of life.
Considering that the 9/11 plot was largely hatched in Hamburg, this latter view is not widely accepted or popular. But it may be closer to the truth as Germans struggle more and more with the proliferation, symbolically and concretely, of mosques next door. Even the one planned for Cologne, which is intentionally designed to be “modest” in size (the minarets at 180 feet tall would be only a third the height of the cathedral’s spires) and open and welcoming in feeling with its clear glass walls has engendered opposition if not ambivalence. Cologne’s Catholic leader, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, is not exactly opposed to its construction but said, “I don’t want to say I’m afraid, but I have an uneasy feeling.” (See linked NY Times article.)
But the one who should have the uneasiest of feelings should be Ralph Giordano himself. He who remembers from his own life the requirement under the Nazis for Jews to wear yellow Stars of David and the subsequent roundup and slaughter of most of his family, he above all should be very careful about what he advocates for fear of what that could call down upon any people, including himself, who embrace opinions, culture, and religious practices that are not sheltered within the majority.
He views mosques in Germany as “symbols of a parallel world.” He does not want to see women in the streets of Germany wearing burqas.” He says, “I’m insulted by that—not by the women themselves, but by the people who turned them into human penguins.”
Perhaps he is too old and addled to recall what his fellow Jews were called not so many years ago on those very same streets.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home