The European Union is in the thrall of a politically correct “left-green” narrative that leaves it unable to deal with the migrant crisis, a leading Muslim academic has said.
Bassam Tibi, a political scientist who says Islam must reform itself, hit out at Europe’s weak response to the unprecedented influx of mainly Muslim migrants, singling out Germany as the worst offender.
In an opinion piece for Swiss daily Basler Zeitung, Mr Tibi says the EU “does not have any strategy other than pious talk like ‘solidarity'”.
“In Europe in recent years, a politically correct prevailing narrative has been created which… forbids any free discussion on the subject,” he adds.
He writes that while Western Europe needs a certain level of immigration due to its “demographic stagnation”, the kinds of migrants it needs are highly educated professionals, not “economic migrants” who “form parallel societies” in large cities.
He therefore calls for much stronger borders, adding that those who advocate this are unjustly labelled with accusations of “populism”, “racism” and “Islamophobia”.
Mr Tibi also calls for Germany to adopt a new system to classify migrants in six possible ways: temporary workers, wanted migrants, unwanted migrants, illegal economic migrants, genuine refugees as defined by international law, and politically persecuted people who have a right to reside under Article 16 of Germany’s Basic Law.
He says that the main problem at present is that all these different groups are lumped together as “asylum seekers” and treated as if they are all fleeing war and persecution.
While people who are persecuted do have the right to asylum, this can only apply to individuals and not whole groups of people. Moreover, this right is only temporary and does not give them permission to settle permanently in Germany.
Europeans, he adds, must also think of their own national interest in choosing who to admit. Islamist extremists may technically be persecuted in their own countries, but that does not mean they should be given asylum.
Mr Tibi has spoken out about the migrant crisis on numerous occasions, often saying things his European counterparts have been too afraid to say.
In August last year, he said Arab migrants see German woman as “sluts” who are “fair game” for sexual assault, adding that the country was set for a big social conflict due to the migrants’ “value system”.
He said the migrants view themselves as honourable, while German women “sleep with everyone” and are thus ripe for attack.
“Rape of women is a weapon of war in Syria,” he said. “All warring parties do that. The refugees who come here, come from this culture and not all are victims.
“If such men do not get what they expect, they are angry. In the culture I come from, you want to humiliate people who make you mad.”
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