Tuesday, April 10, 2012

How Much Tolerance is Enough?

Silvia Jelincic is an Austrian journalist who writes regularly for an economics magazine (see the brief bio at the bottom of this post for more information). Yesterday she wrote a column promoting the typical knee-jerk liberal viewpoint on the failure of Turks to integrate into Austrian society — “There are problems on both sides; Austrians need to be more tolerant and open, etc. etc.” Suicidal even-handedness, in other words.

The Islam-critical site SOS — Österreich was prompted to republish Dr. Jelincic’s column followed by a response. The original article by Dr. Jelincic appeared at Vienna Online.

Many thanks to JLH for the translation.

Ummah Austria

Thoughts on the New Turkish Book: “We Are Coming”

April 10, 2012
by der patriot


Silvia Jelincic’s Monday column for Vienna Online:

Life without tolerance. Thoughts on the new Turkish Book, We Are Coming.

Well, I don’t really know. Tolerance is important. But those who demand tolerance are often anything but tolerant of others. Exactly ten years ago, I was dating a Jew. A great young man — clever, witty, good-looking. Everything women in their early twenties (and actually later) are into. We had a great time. The two of us were not especially devout — actually sure, but not in the traditional sense. We did not constantly pray or go to church or synagogue. The problem was his parents, They didn’t like me. Because I was not “one of them.” The situation escalated and ended in conflict. Today I am glad. It does not feel good to be rejected by your partner’s parents. Basically, it should play no role.

Why am I telling you that? Well, this bygone love came to mind again when I ran across the new book We Are Coming.

A young Turk wrote it. The content is explosive, In it, he writes: “It does not matter whether you like us or not, whether you integrate us or not, whether you want us in the EU or not. Our influence in Europe will increase. Because we are younger, hungrier and stronger than you.”

I understand the anger that speaks through him. Turks have again and again, in Austria as well as in Germany, been the target of xenophobic attacks. It is understandable that that is not good enough for the Turks. At any rate, entry into the EU only makes sense if it is not a question of better or worse, of a battle between individual groups, but of respect — and tolerance. But where is the tolerance? Turks are apparently just as intolerant as we. The problem is on both sides.

My last trip to Turkey was sobering. As a Western woman, blonde in addition, traveling without a man, the Frau should preferably not leave the hotel. We are fair game, can hardly be taken seriously. Every day at least three or four stupid remarks from seriously horny men. And the talk of tolerance and openness? And on the other hand, we here, we tolerant Austrians who have the nerve to tell Muslim women they should take off their headscarves in our schools.

I recommend the book We Are Coming because it shows how things really are. Because it shows that those who speak of tolerance do not know what the word means. And because it shows what happens when we are not tolerant.

Because then it will be exactly as this young Turk writes: “It does not matter whether you like us or not, whether you integrate us or not, whether you want us in the EU or not. Our influence in Europe will increase. Because we are younger, hungrier and stronger than you.”

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Note on the above

Dear Ms. Jelincic,

We believe that we Austrians have already demonstrated enough tolerance for Muslim immigrants from Turkey or Arabic countries in the last twenty years.

Out of tolerance, crucifixes in schools and kindergartens were removed. Out of tolerance, we adapted menus and removed pork. Austrian parents may have muttered about it in their own homes, but they went along with the lesson plans being adapted to the students from Anatolia.

Thousands of Austrians demonstrated their tolerance by silently accepting mosques or Islamic culture centers opposite their front doors. Austrians’ taxes support countless integration or immigrant organizations, the like of which native Austrians could only dream of having. We are funding an undersecretary who is concerned exclusively with these so-called “unwilling-to-integrate” Turks.

Every weekend, somewhere in Austria, there is an event under the aegis of multicultural dialogue which serves to make the Turks feel at home under the crescent moon in Austria.

Believe us, we Austrians know what tolerance is — we live it day by day!

Believe us, too, that if you discuss tolerance with Muslims from all over the world, this discussion can never take place on a level playing field. (But that is a whole different subject.)

After decades of discussion and effort, we are facing the same problems with the second or third generation of Turkish immigration as at the beginning. Our opinion: ENOUGH!

Anyone who still does not want to adapt to Austria should consider going home. And since this disinclination could be especially developed among Turkish immigrants, a discussion of Turkey entering the EU is superfluous.


Dr. Silvia Jelincic is a journalist with the Austrian economics magazine FORMAT. In 2008,she was awarded the prize for trade writing by the Chamber of Commerce and the Women’s Pavilion. Jelincic also crafts presentations for television and had a bestseller in 2009 with the book The Naked Elite. The 33-year-old was a ghostwriter for the much-awarded NATO and EU security expert, Friedrich Steinhäusler. Their book Terror Target Europa appeared in January 2011. Jelincic was born in Vienna, the daughter of Croatian immigrants.

15 comments:

Qualis Rex said...

There is an old Italian saying (don't worry Baron...keeping it in English : ) "A Turk and a rabid dog are equally cruel, but you just might be able to reason with the rabid dog". In fact, all across Europe there is a phrase, "as cruel as a Turk" in many languages. This is due to Europe's (and the Middle East's, as an FYI) legacy of experiencing Turks as cruel for the sake of being cruel, as opposed to any Macchiavellian strategy behind it.

That being said, are the Turks hungrier? Obviously, yes. Their unemployment rate is double that of Austria. Are they younger? Yes, their fertility rate is 2.13 while Austria's is 1.41. Are they stronger? Physicall, as a workforce, I would say yes. But intellectually or mentally, the number of Nobel Laureates (there is only 1...in literature) says no. But it's precisely those without intellect behind physical strength that can do the most damage...if the intelligent ones let them.

wheatington said...

My Uncle Lou used to say "Cold as a Turk's heart." The plethora of sayings expressing the barbarism of Turks must have some basis in fact.

Anonymous said...

The Great Project keeps steamrollering along: EXCLUSIVE: TURKS TO GET SAME RIGHTS IN EUROPE’S ECONOMY AS EU RESIDENTS

—GAinNY

Rachel said...

to Qualis,
The Nobel winner is banned from Turkey, leaves elsewhere. Excellent book, by the way. I am not sure, but he may be a Christian, like the Egyptian winner/

goethechosemercy said...

Wow.
How soon we forget 1570 and 1683.
This is not xenophobia.
This is historical awareness and the wisdom that too much tolerance for the intolerant orient breeds annihilation of the tolerant.

Unknown said...

And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him, thus.
-Othello, William Shakespeare

Anonymous said...

They have all this arsenal of weapons

"Tolerance", "Peace", "Religion", etc. Those words we hear all to often, used just as weapons against us. Because they know they work in silencing any debate.

Qualis Rex said...

Rachel - I had no idea. Thanks for that info!

1389 said...

@goethechosemercy,

We have not forgotten 1389, and we will not let anyone else forget either. That's why we blog!

laine said...

"Turks are apparently just as intolerant as we. The problem is on both sides.

... we tolerant Austrians who have the nerve to tell Muslim women they should take off their headscarves in our schools".

This kind of hair shirt wearing westerner who is so arrogant as to speak for the West and claim that we are equally intolerant as Muslims of any sort is part of our decay. It is a particularly gross slander in comparison to Turks who to this day deny their ethnic cleansing massacre of Armenians. The claim that we have made Muslims feel unwelcome in our lands?...I wish. Millions of them continue to pour in, mostly net drains on the public treasury, and yet, nothing is ever enough for them. They have been given rights plus i.e. exactly the same rights as every western national AND all kinds of monetary aid unavailable to elderly or strapped student natives. Let's talk reciprocity here. There is little non-Muslim traffic into Muslim lands but what there is, encounters a wall of hostility, institutionalized hostility, not a few disapproving looks. There is not a single Muslim nation out of 57 that grants non-Muslims the same rights as the Muslim nationals. None. Rather than building new houses of worship, non-Muslims are denied the right to repair even existing ones. Bibles, crosses, any "infidel" religious regalia are outlawed on pain of imprisonment while proselytizing can bring the death penalty. And how ignorant is Ms. Jelincic to accept the Muslim takiya about head scarves at face value? Like minarets, they are NOT a Muslim religious requirement but part of their colonist uniform, one of their countless in-your-face sharia wedges. The present head of al-Quaeda is on record as calling veiled women (hijab is a symbolic nod to full veiling) soldiers in the Muslim army and so they are, wittingly or unwittingly. The only ones who should be giving awards to Ms. Jelincic for such foolish writing are the Muslim interlopers whose tool she remains drawing this false and slanderous equivalence between our tolerance and their utter lack of it both in their own lands and ours. It is Infidelphobia that is the problem, not Islamophobia that is warranted on the facts.

ib said...

If you must read that book, please don't buy it , take it out from the library. At lest less money will go to terrorism that way.

Cobra said...

The dealings with the Turk always invading armies are still very much alive in my peoples' memories even after hundreds of years.
We hate them. Period.

Unknown said...

I just saw "The Price of Sex" by filmmaker Mimi Chakarova. It is about eastern European women deceived into going to Turkey, Dubai, and somewhat less often western Europe for “jobs”. Turkey comes up again and again. Problems with corruption are present in many places, but are not a way of life in the West like they are in Muslim countries, where things are often right out in the open. Westerners often just do not understand the differences. I think about the prospect of Turkey joining the EU and becoming part of the Schengen Area and my blood runs cold. It is easy enough to deceive people to go to some of these places, but with Turkey in the Schengen area, tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of people would disappear off of the streets from all over Europe. People may say it is some “racist” trope about “poor white women” but they are clearly not paying attention to incidence. European criminals are often complicit, but if current trafficking or the pimping and grooming cases that have become common all over Europe are any indication, victims and perpetrators would follow the existing pattern.

Qualis Rex said...

Cobra - I have always challenged ANYONE to come up with ONE technological, societal or intellectual benefit the Turks have given to the world (you can do the same exercise with Afghanis or Somalis). While the Turks will certainly say "Sufism", the reality is there is none. The Ottoman Empire (very much like the Spanish Empire, it's counterpart in the West, to be fair) was totally parasitic, in that it simply took from the conquered cultures with the sole purpose of self-agrandizement and without any benefit of an increase in technology, education or societal benefit (unlike the Roman Empire, for example).

Unknown - there is currently enough human traficking in Europe through the Mohammedan Albanians and Gypsies; the Turks are not needed as this is already a grave problem.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Armenia and let's not forget the invasion of Northern Cyprus, the Turkish grabbing and instant occupation of Cypriots' homes.