The Europe I want to live in

In his opinion ‘Storm in a teacup‘ published on 3 February, Carmel Vassallo boldly claimed that Muslims are granted “too much” tolerance in Europe.

Is Vassallo implying that granting and safeguarding people’s human rights is excessive? Is he suggesting that some Muslims should be stripped of their rights?

He makes no difference between Muslim migrants and European Muslims, so is he suggesting that refugees should be sent back to a Syria destroyed by Assad’s bombs and Islamic State’s tyranny? What about the millions of Muslims born and bred in Europe… should they convert to Christianity?

He goes to great lengths to portray Muslims as intolerant towards other religions by selectively referring to the situation in a number of countries, including Nigeria and the Central African Republic. While there is no doubt Christians are persecuted by Muslims in a number of countries, this neither justifies the persecution of Muslims nor does it mean that all Muslims are intolerant.

Vassallo cites Myanmar as a place were Christians are persecuted. But he curiously fails to mention that in what was previously known as Burma, Muslims have also been attacked with impunity, stripped of their right to vote and driven from their homes. The Buddhist majority in Myanmar denies more than a million Rohingya Muslims their basic freedoms of movement, speech, worship and association. So should Buddhists around the world be stripped of their rights and freedoms because of the situation in Myanmar?

A slate of recent reports show an alarming rise of Islamophobic and anti-Semite crimes in Europe, but Vassallo absurdly says that Muslims are being shown too much tolerance. Hate crimes against Muslim Americans have trebled since the attacks in Paris in November 2015, while according to Met Police statistics crimes against Muslims in London rose by 70% in 2015.

I denounce the most extreme forms of Islam such as Wahhabism, which denies women and men (mostly Muslim) their basic rights and freedoms. The strict use of Islamic law denies people their human rights and any form of dissent or diversity is purged.

But I also denounce the most extreme forms of Christianity which have led to acts of terrorism in the US, Norway and Uganda.

Moreover, the Muslim world is not a homogenous block as right-wingers and xenophobes would like us to believe. There are millions of Muslims who live in tolerant countries which respect the rule of law and were people of different religions co-exist peacefully.

I do not want to live in a society where people are considered as second-class citizens simply because of their race or belief. I do not want to live in a country which discriminates against Muslims simply because some other Muslims abroad are intolerant.

It seems Vassallo has a problem with the “immigration into Malta of individuals whose capacity to integrate into the wider society and respect its values are at best doubtful.” Then he goes on to selectively quote a study which concluded that less than one in five Germans believe that Islam is incompatible with German culture.

Which German culture is Vassallo talking about? The Germany of anti-Muslim group Pegida and the violent right-wingers who are burning down refugee hostels? Or the ‘willkommenskultur’ which saw thousands of German citizens welcome refugees with humanity and compassion in train stations across the country.

Which European values does Vassallo expect Muslims to be compatible with? The ones of Le Pen, Salvini, Wilders and Orban – or the values of solidarity, respect and diversity on which the European Union was founded?

Vassallo assumes that all those asylum seekers he describes as “unwanted visitors” are Muslim. I believe Vassallo is well aware that not all asylum seekers who have landed in Malta in the past few years are Muslim and that not all Muslims in Malta are asylum seekers.

Vassallo then goes on to repeat the same logical fallacy spread by the ham-fisted Ghaqda Patrijotti Maltin and the intolerant online mob. “… Matthew Agius’s court reports in MaltaToday just this last month are awash with Husseins, Alis, Ahmeds, Mohameds and other kindred spirits up before the courts for offences ranging from drugs to fraud, via attacks with knives, robbery, bigamy, sexual assault and rape. One would think that we do not have enough homegrown villains at all levels of society to attend to our need for excitement,” Vassallo wrote.

It seems that Vassallo not only assumes that all Muslims in Malta are foreigners but he also seems to be implying that they’re all criminals, which reminds me of Adolf Hitler’s similar claim on Jews some 100 years ago.

In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote: “Was there any form of filth or crime...without at least one Jew involved in it. If you cut even cautiously into such a sore, you find like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light - a Jew.”

Replace “Jew” with “Muslim” and it would perfectly fit into the narrative being promulgated by Islamophobes across Europe. 

Is a crime any worse if committed by a foreigner? Is it even worse if committed by a Muslim?

Can Vassallo provide any proof that the crime rate among Muslims is higher than among the atheists, Catholics, Jews or Buddhists living in Malta? 

I agree with Vassallo in that Ghaqda Patrijotti Maltin’s antics do not represent the fears of many people in Malta. Migration has existed for at least 200,000 years and the world and our societies are inevitably changing. And migration poses a number of challenges which we must address. However, these changes cannot be stopped or pushed back.

Maltese society has undergone immeasurable changes over the years, as has the rest of the world, and when faced with change we have two choices. Either embrace it and adapt to it or resist it and create conflict.

However daunting the changes are, I would always opt for the former.