Xenophobia - a Clarification

Today, I came across an article in the German Press which tells the story of a University Professor who horribile dictu is apparently publishing his thoughts on Twitter. His views, the article explains in a pained and worried tone, are not pro-refugees. They are therefore, the author points out "fremdenfeindlich" - hostile to foreigners, xenophobic. The article is here.

This got me thinking: The professor is against Germany taking in more and more and more (every day, c.3,000) refugees, migrants, asylum seekers whatever you choose to call them. 80 percent of those people are male and 85 percent are Muslim. Whether indeed this is a good idea, is blatantly more than debatable, After the horrendous incidents at NYE in Cologne, people are surely allowed to raise the topic in a more than questioning manner. Crime, especially sexual crime against women has risen dramatically. Other violent crime is also up, especially in formerly pleasant towns like Düsseldorf, or the said Cologne. People, but especially women are rightly afraid to go out on their own. The sale of pepper spray, maze, and demand for legally availablel self-defense weapons has exploded.

So far, so bad. Back to our tweeting professor. Why, in God's name should somebody who is not in favour (and says so publicly) of taking in millions of misogynist, violent males, who balk at the thought of shaking a woman's hand - refugees in asylum seeker's hostels even refuse to take food when it is served to them by a woman - but don't appear to have a problem with raping women, why then should he not be allowed to say so? Or even more illogically, be smeared as xenophobic? For that is exactly the one aspect the professor hasn't got a problem with - that those people are foreigners. He is not xenophobic - he is worried about the demise of tolerance in Germany.

Likewise, regular readers of this blog will know how much I detest xenophobia. They will also know how much I detest illiberalism and homophobic or misogynist attitudes.Which is precisely why I am against importing millions of Muslim males who are explicitly unwilling to integrate and who demand that their anti-Western views and behaviour patterns aren't just respected but made the norm in their newly adopted countries.

So quite why the German press wants to stigmatize people who are worried about society becoming ever more illiberal, intolerant and proto-fascist as "xenophobic" must remain a mystery. Or shall we say not so much a mystery: Plummeting circulation figures are making German media vulnerable: Government funding is only for those who are happy to be "gleichgeschaltet" and will spout Merkel's message.

Britain - All the Rage

I'm slightly apprehensive about this blog post. Will it result in hate mail? Furious comments? Total silence? We will see.
When I last lived in Britain, it seemed a gentle and tolerant country. People were textbook-polite, often friendly and helpful.

This is my second sojourn, and I have only been here 4 months. So maybe my impressions are wrong, or one-sided.

I would like to emphasize that in none of my examples have I been directly involved. I have no axe to grind. I see myself as a bystander in this country, not a particpant.


Almost every day, I see the most rage-filled exchanges between drivers who feel cut-up, slighted, or are simply furious about other cars. They hoot their horns, shake their fists, shout abuse out of the window.

I hear busdrivers getting angry with passengers for the smallest offense (like presenting their ticket upside-down.)

I observe people in supermarkets deliberately blocking other shoppers' access to the shelf and then furiously hissing at them when they complain.

People are losing their rags. Violence seems contantly under the surface.

I hear about people being deliberately humiliated by their bosses at work, building up hate fantasies.

I read about gay people getting beaten up in town centres.


"You'd find that everywhere", I hear you say. Maybe. But Britain used to be different. Politer. Nicer. Gentler.

Some years ago, the then Prime Minister, John Major propagated "A nation at ease with itself". Is this still true?