Hope for Europe?

One of the major problems which Europe and the wider Western world faces is the fact that the vast majority of mainstream politicians just don't want to listen to the people.

Not only that, they seem to inhabit a bizarre parallel universe where everything means the exact opposite.

A few years ago, it seemed as if parts of Europe were hopelessly lost; for me, this feeling of despair was summed up by reading Fjordman's blog. In an article about Sweden's growing gang-rape epidemic, he quoted an interview with an Arab immigrant called Hamid:

"It is not as wrong raping a Swedish girl as raping an Arab girl,”. “The Swedish girl gets a lot of help afterwards, and she had probably f***ked before, anyway. But the Arab girl will have problems with her family. For her, being raped is a source of shame. It is important that she retains her virginity until she marries.”

It was no coincidence therefore that it was a Swedish girl that was gang raped in Rissne. “It is far too easy to get a Swedish whore…… girl, I mean;” says Hamid, and laughs over his own choice of words. “Many immigrant boys have Swedish girlfriends when they are teenagers. But when they get married, they get a proper woman from their own culture who has never been with a boy. That’s what I am going to do. I don’t have too much respect for Swedish girls. I guess you can say they get f***ked to pieces.”

Fjordman presented much evidence that these rapes had risen in line with the number of non-Western immigrants in Sweden. The Swedish government and establishment, for various reasons, insisted that the increase was due to statistical anomalies caused by laws which made reporting a rape easier.

After reading the piece I quoted above, a leading Swedish newspaper editor of the time said:

"If the debate is that there are problems caused by refugees and immigrants, we don’t want it.”

Quite how or why someone can be so wilfully blind, so obtuse, escaped me then and escapes me now. Sweden doesn't seem to have improved dramatically either, it's sad to say.

It does seem to be getting slightly easier to have the debate that the Swedish newspaper editor wished to suppress, however.

The out of touch politicians still exist. Only now, sometimes, someone will step forward to answer them.

Two weeks ago, the Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen launched an attack on Geert Wilders, the controversial Dutch MP behind the film Fitna.

Verhagen said:

Mr Verhagen said that Mr Wilders used generalisations to sow discord and pit different groups of people against one another. He said that what Mr Wilders was actually doing was forcing people to centre their identities on what was, in fact, just one factor in their lives: their religion. He added that Mr Wilders' remarks were turning the Netherlands into a country of "us against them" and that he did not wish to live in such a land.

Yes, Geert Wilders and his compulsive truth telling. Clearly it is only the words and actions of Wilders which sows discord and discontent - how dare he highlight things which Verhagen and his cronies wish to keep firmly in the dark.

It seems the idea that pointing out that something is happening is worse than having let it happen in the first place and then ignoring the outcome could be dying out in the Netherlands, however. A recent poll suggests that many of Wilders' ideas enjoy the support of more than 40% of the population.

According to Dutch News:

Some 40% of the Dutch population agree with many of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilder's statements, according to research by TNS Nipo for magazine Vrij Nederland.

According to opinion polls, Wilders would take about 18% of the vote if there was an election tomorrow. But this research shows support for his ideas is much wider, Vrij Nederland says.

Some 42% of those polled agreed with the statement that Wilders says 'what ordinary people believe and want'. Some 35% do not think Wilders goes too far in his comments about Islam and Muslims and 38% agree with Wilders' statement that Muslims have come to the Netherlands 'to take things over'.

A large majority - 61% - agree with Wilders' call for 'street terrorists' to be deported. Wilders used the phrase to describe gangs of youths, mainly of Moroccan origin.

So, the time of simply banning debate on certain issues may well be over. Arguably it's already too late - but still, this is generally a positive development.

It seems that debate about immigration and particularly Islamism will also feature heavily in the Norwegian elections, coming up in about six months.

Again, there are people like former Labour prime minister (how sweet those words sound) Thorbjoern Jagland who don't seem to live on the same planet as everyone else:

And last month, senior members of the Labour Party called for a fight against radical Islam in Norway.

However, the former prime minister and Labour Party leader, Thorbjoern Jagland, called it an unnecessary fight that would only lead to confrontation.

While he argued that it was empty rhetoric, saying there was no radical Islam in Norway, the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) insists radical Islam does represent a threat.

"In Norway, extreme Islamist activity is carried out by small groups. However, the international connections the persons in these groups represent, in addition to activities they carry out, are such in nature that they can also influence that national threat picture," it said in a recent report.

Pundits estimate that the Progress Party led by Siv Jensen might get up to 30% of the national vote. The party warns extensively about the Islamisation of Norway, and is very much against burying its head in the sand over immigration issues for fear of being called racist:

"The reality is that a kind of sneak-Islamisation of this society is being allowed," she recently told a Progress Party conference. "We are going to have to stop this."

Opinion polls suggest the party could win as much as 30% of the vote in the election for the national parliament, the Storting, in September.

"If the Progress Party gets to govern Norway, we will enforce Norwegian law and Norwegian rules. We are not going to allow special demands from any single group in society," Ms Jensen added.

That's the way to do it. It's encouraging that a few are willing to speak out on the issues which actually concern ordinary people; let's just hope that it's not already too late.