por admin » Lun Oct 11, 2010 10:24 pm
Europa la intolerante
La imagen progresiva de Europa es una fabricacion de la mente de los liberales Americanos.
En 1965 Tom Wolfe dijo" La oscura noche del facismo siempre esta descendiendo en US pero aterriza solamente en Europa. Y lo mismo pasa hoy dia.
El anio pasado casi el 60% de los Swiss votaron a favor de la prohibicion de la construcciones de minarets del todo, no solamente en algunos lugares, en todas partes.
En Belgium, la camara baja del parlamento paso la prohibicion de la burga y ahora espera la aprobacion del Senado. En Francia esa ley se dio la semana pasada.
En los ultimos anios, la derecha extrema, partidos anti-inmigrantes han tenido mucho exito en todo Europa. En Sweden, el partido nacionalista Sweden Democrats entraron al parlamento por primera vez desde que el partido fue fundado en 1988. En Inglaterra, la extrema derecha British National Party gano con mas de tres veces los votos en las elecciones del parlamento comparados con el 2005; el anio pasado gano dos escanios en el Parlamento Europeo.
En Austria, el Freddom Party -previamente liderado por Joerg Haider, quien tuvo palabras positivas acerca de los Nazis - gano el 17.5% de los votos en el 2008. En Francia el National Front Party de Jean-Marie Le Pen, quien cuestiono la existencia de las camaras de gas de los Nazis antes de decir que fueron "un pequenio detalle" de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, termino segundo en las elecciones del 2002.
Y ahora la extrema derecha esta surgiendo nuevamente en Alemania, donde las exigentes leyes de expresion los habian mantenido alejados del Bundestag. Los recientes sondeos de opinion citados por el German Press Agency estima que el apoyo por el partido anti-Musulmal es el 20%, lo cual sera suficiente para entrar al parlamento.
El que los extremitas entren al parlamento representa la sacudida mas grande a la politica Europea desde la desaparicion del comunismo, escribio Denis MacShane recientemente en Newsweek. Mr MacShane es miembro del Labour del Parlamento Ingles y sirvio como ministro de estado en Europa.
Los Europeos no quieren solamente a los Musulmanes si no tambien a los Judios, quienes fueron casi totalmente exterminados del continente hace 60 anios. Un reciente sondeo de actitudes de Pew Global encontro que caso el 50% de los Espanioles tienen una opinion desfavorable o muy desfavorable de los Judios. Las cifras para los Alemanes es del 25%, los Franceses 20% y los Britanicos 10%. El anti-Semitismo ha sido subestimado por la reciente declaracion del European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht quien dijo" no es facil el tener, aunque sean Judios moderados, una discusion racional acerca delo que esta pasando en el Medio Oriente"
Entonces cuando los liberales Americanos le dicen a los conservadores que son racistas y que quieren imponer el fascimo en US (habiendo fracasado durante los dos gobiernos de la administracion Bush), ellos ignoran que parte del Occidente donde hay una genuina nostalgia por la diversidad, es una fabricacion de la mente de los liberales Americanos.
Cualquiera que haya viajado alrededor de Europa sabe que el avance progresista, diversidad etnica y religiosa, no es mas que una fabricacion de la mente de los liberales Americanos.
Los liberales Americanos que ignoran el racismo de los Europeos y que consideran que el oponerse a la construccion de una mezquita en el World Trade Center nos hace recordar a la sugerencia del comunista Aleman Berlot Brecht: "No seria mas facil en ese caso que el gobierno disuelva a la gente y elija a otra"
A traves del debate de la construccion de la mezquita, la gran mayoria de Americanos mostraron que eran capaces de tener un debate respetuoso a pesar de no estar de acuerdo. Son los Europeos, nuevamente, sus impulsos oscuros los que debemos temer.
Europe the Intolerant
The continent's progressive image is a fabrication of the American liberal mind.
By JAMES KIRCHICK
Prague
'The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe." So said Tom Wolfe in 1965, and so it is today.
Various commentators have argued recently that opposition by many Americans to a proposed Islamic center two blocks from the ruins of the World Trade Center represents deep-seated religious bigotry and paranoia. But if any place is plagued by increasing bigotry, it's not America but Europe, the continent whose welfare states and pacifism are so admired by American liberals.
Last year, nearly 60% of Swiss voted to ban the construction of minarets—all minarets, everywhere, not just near the sites of world-historical terrorist attacks committed by Muslim radicals.
In Belgium, the lower house of parliament passed a burqa ban this year that now awaits Senate approval. In France such a ban became the law of the land last week, having been upheld by the country's top court. Although there are legitimate reasons for such bans, some support for them certainly arises from anti-Muslim bigotry.
In recent years far-right, anti-immigrant parties have done alarmingly well across Europe. In Sweden, the nationalist Sweden Democrats entered parliament last month for the first time since the party's founding in 1988. In the United Kingdom, the far-right British National Party won nearly three times as many votes (563,000) in this year's parliamentary elections as in 2005; last year it won two seats in the European Parliament.
In Austria, the Freedom Party—formerly led by Joerg Haider, who had kind things to say of the Nazis—earned 17.5% of the vote in 2008. In France, the National Front party of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who questioned the existence of the Nazi gas chambers before conceding that they were a "detail" of World War II, came in second in the 2002 presidential election, earning a spot in a runoff with then-President Jacques Chirac.
And now the far right may be rising again in Germany, where stringent speech laws and parliamentary thresholds have long kept it out of the Bundestag. Recent polls cited by the German Press Agency estimate support for an anti-Muslim party at 20%, which would be enough to enter parliament.
"The fall of parliamentary seats into extremist hands represents the biggest shake-up in European politics since the disappearance of communism," wrote Denis MacShane recently in Newsweek. Mr. MacShane is a Labour member of the British Parliament who previously served as minister of state for Europe.
Europeans are leery not just of Muslim immigrants but of Jews, nearly exterminated on the continent 60 years ago. A recent Pew Global Attitudes poll found that nearly 50% of Spaniards have either a "very" or "somewhat unfavorable" opinion of Jews. The figures are 25% for Germans, 20% for French and 10% for British. This anti- Semitism was underscored by the recent assertion of European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht that "it is not easy to have, even with moderate Jews, a rational discussion about what is actually happening in the Middle East."
So when American liberals decry their conservative counterparts as bigots seeking to impose fascism on the U.S. (having failed to do so during two terms of the Bush administration), they ignore that part of the West where genuine nostalgia for fascism endures.
Anyone who has traveled throughout Europe knows that its image as an exemplar of progressivism, and ethnic and religious diversity, is a fabrication of the American liberal mind.
American liberals who ignore European bigotry while considering opposition to the Ground Zero mosque inexcusable bring to mind the mocking suggestion of German communist playwright Bertolt Brecht: "Would it not be easier in that case for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?"
Throughout the mosque debate, the vast majority of Americans showed themselves to be capable of respectful disagreement. It is Europeans, again, whose darker impulses we have to fear.
Mr. Kirchick is writer at large with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty based in Prague, and a contributing editor of the New Republic.