In this mailing:
- Soeren Kern: Europe's Migrant
Crisis: Millions Still to Come
- Maria Polizoidou: Preparing for
Terrorist Attacks in Greece
- Amir Taheri: Progress and
History in Zigzag
by Soeren Kern • December 3, 2017
at 5:00 am
- More than six
million migrants are waiting in countries around the
Mediterranean to cross into Europe, according to a classified
German government report leaked to Bild.
- "Young people
all have cellphones and they can see what's happening in other
parts of the world, and that acts as a magnet." — Michael
Møller, Director of the United Nations office in Geneva.
- "The biggest
migration movements are still ahead: Africa's population will
double in the next decades... Nigeria [will grow] to 400 million.
In our digital age with the internet and mobile phones,
everyone knows about our prosperity and lifestyle.... Eight to
ten million migrants are still on the way." — Gerd
Müller, Germany's Development Minister.
Migrants
crossing from Libya to Europe wait to be rescued from a boat by
crew members from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) Phoenix
vessel on May 18, 2017 off Lampedusa, Italy. (Photo by Chris
McGrath/Getty Images)
The African Union-European Union (AU-EU) summit,
held in in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, on November 29-30, 2017, has
ended in abject failure after the 55 African and 28 European
leaders attending the event were unable to agree on even basic
measures to prevent potentially tens of millions of African
migrants from flooding Europe.
Despite high expectations and grand statements, the
only concrete decision to come out of Abidjan was the promise to
evacuate 3,800 African migrants stranded in Libya.
by Maria Polizoidou • December 3,
2017 at 4:30 am
- These illegal
immigrants "come to Europe looking for 'opportunities,'
but do not accept any of the responsibilities of an open
democracy. They usually engage in all kinds of smuggling:
Drugs, trafficking, and even 'jihad.' We cannot allow
that." — Former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
- "Jihadists are
ideologues... They see the world as a battle between believers
and unbelievers." Therefore no one is "immune"
to their agenda. — François Heisbourg, IISS Council Chair at
the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies.
- Appeasing radical
Muslims through open-border policies -- and by surrendering
national identity to multiculturalism -- has the opposite of
the intended effect. Allowing unfettered entry, rather than
causing the immigrants to integrate and liberalize, and
leading to friendly ties with Muslim-majority countries, has
instead led to their further radicalization.
In
September 2017, another 4,000 illegal immigrants and refugees
arrived on the Greek islands, overwhelming local communities
ill-equipped to receive them. Pictured: Migrants arrive at a beach
on the Greek island of Kos after crossing part of the Aegean sea
from Turkey in a rubber dinghy, on August 15, 2015. (Photo by Milos
Bicanski/Getty Images)
At a recent conference in Rome, held by the think
tank European Ideas Network (EIN), former Greek Prime Minister
Antonis Samaras, a member of the Hellenic Parliament, declared:
"European democracies in the Mediterranean are
in danger of being swept away by a tsunami of uncontrolled
immigration. We cannot allow this. Our societies cannot stand it.
The European Union itself cannot stand it... [More than] one
million 'foreigners' passed then [2015] through Greece and ended up
in various countries of the European Union, mainly in Northern and
Central Europe. Some of them were real refugees, from Syria and
Iraq. But most of them were illegal immigrants from other countries
of the world. Today it is estimated that the true refugees that are
still coming are 20% of the total or fewer. The rest are illegal
immigrants."
by Amir Taheri • December 3, 2017
at 4:00 am
No one in
Pakistan cared that the "Father of the Nation," Muhammad
Ali Jinnah (d. 1948), was a secular politician. Today, the label
secular could get you killed. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
One of the key ideas promoted by the European
Enlightenment or the Age of Reason of the 18th century is that of
progress, according to which human history develops across a curve
from a low point to higher and higher points. One may debate and
dispute the exact nature of "higher" and
"lower" points in that context. But most students of the
Enlightenment agree that "progress" has two facets:
material and cultural.
Material progress could be measured by such
yardsticks and life expectancy, average health of the people, and better
living conditions in tangible terms such as housing and the ability
to cope with natural disasters. On a cultural level, progress
includes literary and artistic creation, scientific and
technological discoveries, participative politics and the rule of
law.
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