English versus Arabic and Spanish
By Alan Caruba
Recently I received an email from the London School
of Islamics authored by Iftikhar Ahmad. It reflects some very large issues
and problems that the British, European and American communities encounter
when they open the doors to the immigration of groups who do not want to
assimilate into their culture and society, while enjoying the benefits of
those societies, chief among which are freedoms that do not exist in their
home countries.
America
is the greatest and most successful experiment regarding the integration
and assimilation of people of differing cultures, languages and religions.
America
is living proof that such assimilation is possible and results in a
society that rewards personal merit and hard work.
The London School of Islamics (LSI) news release,
dated November 13, began with the headline “Crime Against Humanity.”
It stated that, “to deprive a Muslim child from his/her culture and
language is a crime against humanity.” After the Church of England and
the Roman Catholic Church, Islam is the third largest religion in the
United Kingdom
. Throughout
Europe
, Muslims are a growing, though minority population. What the LSI wants,
however, are “state-funded Muslim schools.” It wants to be separate
from the mainstream of English society.
In a comparable fashion, Hispanics in
America
have been lobbying, often with success, to make Spanish the second
official language of the nation. There is even a movement to
“reconquer” those formerly Mexican areas of the nation and the
official policy of the Mexican government is to create a southern border
which Mexicans could cross at will, electing to live here if they wish,
enjoy all the benefits of American citizenship, but retaining their own
citizenship at the same time.
The LSI, however, maintains, “It is absurd to say
that (the) Muslim community should demonstrate ‘Englishness.’ They
can’t. But they can be and are British.” No, they can’t unless they
are fluent in the English language and feel at home in
England
. Neither can Mexicans who insist on remaining Mexican rightly call
themselves American without being able to speak English and adapting to
our society. One either chooses to assimilate into their new, chosen
homeland or they should return to their former one.
According to the LSI, however, the only way a Muslim
can be an Englishman would be if they “start moving in and around pubs,
indulge in binge drinking, visiting night clubs, and frequently changing
partners.” This picture of an English society of drunkards and sexual
depravity might be laughable if it was only shared by Iftikar Ahmad, but
the battle being waged in the world these days between Muslims and all
others is based on this belief in the moral superiority of Islam and the
view that the world can only exist if Islam is imposed on it through holy
war.
The LSI wants a
Britain
where Arabic, Urdu and Persian are languages on an equal footing with the
language of Shakespeare and Churchill. The LSI wants a Muslim England. In
a comparable fashion, the Mexicans and other Hispanics who live among
Americans, but insist that their language and culture take precedence are
equally arrogant and indifferent to the majority of the population.
Fortunately, many Mexican-Americans love their adopted nation and oppose
such views.
What we are discussing here is more than a clash of
cultures. It is the demand for separatism and of isolation within the
larger societies they call home or, at least, in which they live. It is
this cultural, religious, and social separatism that has mired the
Middle East
in a seventh century society living in a 2lst century world. It encourages
despotism and corruption. In a comparable way, no American would trade our
economic, electoral and justice system for that of
Mexico
where poverty is so vast that it drives its people to risk their lives to
come here to simply feed and cloth their families.
The real crime against humanity would be if Islam
succeeded in its goal of eliminating all other religions and the real
crime of illegal immigration to America is testing our willingness to
compromise our laws and our society for the demands of a minority that
flouts our legal system and drains our economy by putting demands on our
education, health and law enforcement systems. One is either an American
by birth or naturalization or they are not.
A Muslim in
England
is either British or they are not.
The notion that
Great Britain
should pay for separate school systems for Muslims is absurd. The notion
that
America
should abandon its legal system to absorb every illegal alien is absurd.
No one is asking that a minority abandon its culture, but neither should
the host nation be asked to abandon its culture.
It is a supreme irony that both American and British
soldiers are in the process of fighting to liberate millions of Afghanis
and Iraqis from decades, if not centuries, of oppression while, at the
same time, striving to establish a system of self-governance they have
never known in order to connect them to the rest of the world.
Just imagine if millions of Americans were to enter
Mexico illegally, demand that the local government provide free medical
care, demand bilingual doctors and nurses, demand bilingual government
forms, fly the US flag from their homes and cars, demand courses on
American culture in their schools, demand local driver’s licenses and
insist that local law enforcement officers speak only English. It is
appalling that our sovereign, national southern border is scorned by our
neighbors.
These are demands to which neither
Great Britain
, nor
America
should ever agree.
Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning
Signs” that is posted on the website of The National Anxiety Center ~ www.anxietycenter.com.
© Alan Caruba 2004
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