The Quandary of Muslim Immigrants

 By: Ali Sina 

A friend shared a not so pleasant experience of her daughter, who with a few of her friends, had traveled to Germany and France for the holidays. 

”In Paris” he wrote, “they were appalled by the behavior of groups of North African and Middle Eastern Muslims in public places, subway stations and on subways. They described them as disgusting packs of nasty lecherous creatures.” 

These appear to be harsh remarks, the kind which could make one want to accuse the author and his daughter of being racists. Let us for the moment endeavor not to be too quick in our passing judgment. Instead, let us among those so inclined to view this through Pee Cee eyeglasses look at this situation in the light of reality. 

It is a fact that, generally speaking, a large number of young immigrants cannot adjust to and integrate well into their new environment.  As a consequence, they gather amongst themselves, form gangs and behave thuggishly. Of course this kind of reaction is not restricted to Muslims. Gang behavior is the result of a feeling of alienation among immigrants coupled by their inability to adjust to living in their host society. 

Since Islamic values are essentially irreconcilable with Western values, the cultural clash and the effects of psychological displacement on the Muslim immigrants are far more dramatic than it is on other groups of people. 

Muslim men naturally consider western liberated women as generally loose, if not sluts.  On January 6th, 2003 the Australian paper, smh.com.au reported that a Moroccan born French citizen businesswoman in Dubai was kidnapped and gang raped by three men who were introduced to her by a trusted Arab friend. She took her complaint to the local police but received no cooperation. Instead she was handcuffed and jailed, accused of indecency. The Arab men who raped her claimed that they thought she was a prostitute. The French consulate had to pay the bail to set her free from her jail. As unbelievably outrageous as the above story may sound, it is a fact of life that Muslim men view western women thusly. A Muslim man finds it natural to assume that a single woman sitting alone in a café, drinking Coca Cola is a prostitute.  

This frame of mind does not change when they immigrate to the West and find themselves unable to blend into a society so distinct from the one they grew up in and/or approve of. The systematic rape of Australian girls by young Muslim immigrants (mostly Lebanese) is causing tremendous social problems in Australia. Any country that plays host to a large number of Muslim immigrants must brace itself to face the consequences. Several years ago, the kids of the Iranian refugees in Western Canada formed a gang called Persian Pride. They were into drugs, prostitution, extortion or mere vandalism. The very name that they chose for their gang reveals the fact that these kids did not have the skills necessary to integrate into the Canadian mosaic, as they suffered from an inferiority complex and felt alienated. This is very much like the racist tendencies of some blacks in America who claim that the black race is the superior. This is a backlash., and so is the Islamization process for so many Muslims, who ironically immigrated to the West to escape Islamic oppression back home. Such behavior is a consequence of cultural displacement, identity alienation and an inability to integrate, and are all symptoms of policies aimed in constructing “better fences” and various social apartheids, which are often advocated by racists under the guise of libertarianism. 

The major obstacles to integration are value differences. The main promoters of these differences are absolutistic religions, or sects. Some factions of the Christian extreme right are often racist and. Islam in its purest sense is also extremist and absolutistic and therefore as a result these problems are far more acute among the Muslims than they might be within any other community. 

Despite this, one should not assume that young Muslim men behave any better in their own Islamic countries. For many Muslim men, western women are disposable commodities, regardless.  In saying this, it should not be taken as a generalization without exception to the rule. There are also Muslim men who do fall in love with Western women and remain loyal to them for life. Nevertheless, as a rule of thumb, Muslim men tend to correlate morality with clothing and since western women are often scantly dressed, when compared to Muslim women in Islamic countries, their expectations are reinforced and for many they are naturally seen as sluttish. Still, while a Muslim man may fool around with western women, when it comes to committing to marriage, he is likely to ask his mom to find him a “descent” wife from back home and that she “mail”, or send her to him. 

An attractive Russian young lady once told me that she traveled to many European countries, including Turkey. But in Turkey she was harassed constantly to such an extent that she dreaded walking in the streets unaccompanied. The experience made her feel a great aversion towards Islam and Muslim men. I know what she is talking about as I used to live in two Islamic countries during my own formative years.  I can testify that her observations about Muslim men are not restricted to Turkey. 

Since I am myself from the Middle East and of Islamic background, I do not have to walk on Pee Cee eggshells, lest someone accuse me of being racist. So let me say it loud and clear:  There is a serious problem with Muslim men’s attitudes, and it has nothing to do with their nationality or race, but it has everything to do with their beliefs and values. 

In saying this I am not advocating a restriction of Muslim immigrations and refugee claimants. But if we want to avoid tensions and further confrontations down the road with the kids of Muslim immigrants, some kind of mechanism for integration must be set in place. Such a mechanism must include a plan of action that would detoxify their minds from these very archaic beliefs and values that are bound to clash with the values of the civilized world.