Thinking Like a Historian: The Conservative Reaction to Immigration and Islamist Terrorism

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The Conservative Reaction to Immigration and Islamist Terrorism

The impact of immigration on European values and society, the connections between immigration and Islamist terrorism, and the best means to stop terrorist attacks are among the most critical and controversial issues in contemporary Europe. In these selections, conservative politicians offer their diagnoses and prescriptions. What are the main problems, according to these leaders? What solutions do they propose?

1 Immigration and the German welfare state. Former Social Democratic senator and German central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin’s bestselling book Germany Does Itself In (2010), a radical critique of the Muslim presence in Germany, generated heated controversy. Sarrazin explained his views in an interview with the newspaper Kurier.

image KURIER: What does [Germany’s national debt crisis] have to do with immigration?

SARRAZIN: At this time in Berlin there is massive influx of Roma and Bulgarian Turks. In 2014 they will all have permanent residence rights and a claim on the German benefits system. It won’t work, financing the growing burdens of demographic aging as well as further uncontrolled immigration on the German welfare state by raising taxes on the so-called rich. . . .

KURIER: And you would very much like to stop it. How?

SARRAZIN: First: change the benefits system — immigrants receive no benefits for at least ten years. Second: change the permanent residency law — only those able and willing to make a long-term, highly skilled contribution to Germany receive residency rights. Third: social and family benefits in Germany should be dependent on adequate knowledge of the language and efforts at integration. Fourth: we must clearly say to the Muslim immigrants who are already here: at some point you become German, even if you obviously continue to cook Turkish food and go to the mosque, and if you don’t want to do that, it’s best you return home. Opinion polls show that more than 60 percent of Turks in Germany speak no German at all or cannot speak it well, and a third would leave Germany immediately if there were no German welfare benefits.

2 Popular opposition to the “islamization” of Europe. The programs offered by conservative politicians evoked substantial popular support, seen in demonstrations across Europe, such as this January 2015 anti-immigrant/anti-Islam rally in Dresden, Germany. Organized by the grassroots group Pegida (a German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West), thousands protested the supposedly pro-Islam stance of the German federal government. The poster in the foreground, with a fake photo of Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Muslim headscarf, mocks the chancellor’s commitment to accept large numbers of refugees from the Middle East. The text, which reads “Ms. Merkel, here are the people,” suggests that “real” Germans should recognize and oppose Islamic extremism and the potential “islamization” of Europe. Pro-immigration groups organized counter demonstrations calling for tolerance and diversity.
image
(Jens Meyer/AP Photo)

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3 Islamist extremism in Europe: some statistics on popular attitudes. This Pew Research Center poll taken in spring 2015 suggested that popular concerns about Islamist extremism varied significantly across national borders and that gender, age, and ideology were statistically significant factors in such concerns.

Percentage responding they are very concerned about Islamic extremism in their country:

Total % By age (percent) By gender (percent) By ideology (percent)
18–29 30–49 50+ Male Female Left Moderate Right
Germany 46 22 39 56 42 50 33 48 55
UK 52 33 49 64 51 52 37 53 56
Spain 61 47 55 70 54 67 52 65 61
France 67 54 63 74 62 71 52 68 73
Italy 53 49 48 58 46 59 48 61 52
Poland 22 18 18 27 21 23 30 21 22
Russia 23 16 18 32 24 23 — — —
4 The Dutch government turns away from multiculturalism. The 2010 Dutch elections brought to power a conservative government that announced plans to restrict immigration, ban face-covering garments for Muslim women, and ensure that immigrants “integrate” into Dutch society. The new interior minister, P. H. Donner, mounted a trenchant critique of multiculturalism.

image The government distances itself explicitly from the relativism contained in the concept of a multicultural society and envisions a society which may change, also through the influence of immigrants who settle here, but is not interchangeable with any other society. The fundamental elements which determine Dutch society are rooted in its history and constitute reference points which many Dutchmen share and which cannot be discarded.

5 The British crackdown on Islamic extremism. In July 2015 British prime minister David Cameron announced that his Conservative Party government would seek new policies to combat Islamist extremism. The key problem, he argued, was a “radical ideology” that was violent and subversive of Western liberal values but also an exciting temptation for youths facing identity crises and failures of integration.

image We should expose their extremism for what it is — a belief system that glorifies violence and subjugates its people — not least Muslim people. We should contrast their bigotry, aggression and theocracy with our values. . . . We are all British. We respect democracy and the rule of law. We believe in freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, equal rights regardless of race, sex, sexuality or faith. . . . Whether you are Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian or Sikh . . . we can all feel part of this country — and we must now all come together and stand up for our values with confidence and pride. . . .

We must . . . deglamorize the extremist cause, especially ISIL [the Islamic State]. . . . This isn’t a pioneering movement — it is vicious, brutal, and a fundamentally abhorrent existence. And here’s my message to any young person here in Britain thinking of going out there. . . . You are cannon fodder for them. . . . If you are a boy, they will brainwash you, strap bombs to your body and blow you up. If you are a girl, they will enslave and abuse you. That is the sick and brutal reality of ISIL. . . .

We need our internet companies to go further in helping us identify potential terrorists online. . . . It’s now time for [Internet companies] to protect their users from the scourge of radicalization. . . .

Government has a key role to play in this. It’s why we ban hate preachers from our country. . . . We need to put out of action the key extremist influencers who are careful to operate just inside the law, but who clearly detest British society and everything we stand for. . . . So as part of our Extremism Bill, we are going to introduce new narrowly targeted powers to enable us to deal with these facilitators and cult leaders, and stop them peddling their hatred. . . . This is not about clamping down on free speech. It’s just about applying our shared values uniformly.

ANALYZING THE EVIDENCE

  1. Why and how do the conservative politicians evoke Western values and ideals in their critiques of Islamist extremism?
  2. Why would conservative critics of Islamic fundamentalism, as represented in the sources here, be more likely to challenge the immigration policies of the European Union than more left-wing politicians would?
  3. Examine the statistics in Source 3. What conclusions can you draw about popular concerns with Islamist extremism in contemporary Europe?

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Using the sources above, along with what you have learned in class and in Chapters 29 and 30, write a short essay that summarizes the conservative viewpoint on Islamist extremism. Are the conservative critics able to reconcile Western democratic traditions of freedom and tolerance with the perceived need to limit immigration, clamp down on fundamentalism, and prevent terrorist attacks?

Sources: (1) Andreas Schwarz, “Thilo Sarrazin legt nach,” Kurier, December 5, 2011, http://kurier.at/politik/thilo-sarrazin-legt-nach/731.594, translated by Joe Perry; (3) Spring 2015 Global Attitudes survey, Q23, Pew Research Center, http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/07/16/extremism-concerns-growing-in-west-and-predominantly-muslim-countries/extremism-concerns-08. Used by permission of the Pew Research Center; (4) Quoted in Geert Wilders, Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2011), p. 206; (5) “David Cameron Extremism Speech,” Independent, July 20, 2015, www.independent.co.uk. Used by permission of The Independent.