BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Polls: European attitude toward Americans is growing chilly

PS isn't this how the Nazis treated the Jews in occupied eastern Europe?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world...sp?story=591998

returning Fallujians...."each will have their fingerprints taken, along with DNA samples and retina scans. Residents will be issued with badges with their home addresses on them, and it will be an offence not to wear it at all times. No civilian vehicles will be allowed in the city in an effort to thwart suicide bombers. One idea floated by the US is for all males in Fallujah be compelled to join work battalions in which they will be paid to clear rubble and rebuild houses."

Kai - "we are on the side of good"??????? as opposed to 'bad'??
what is 'bad'? and who are 'we'? this kind of rhetoric is also the kind that was used by the Nazis - fear and righteousness - that the German race was superior to others on the planet. I'd be very, very careful about making statements like that....

From an e-mail:

Education as key to fighting Islamism

by Claude Salhani
Washington Times
15-12-2004

BRUSSELS. - Despite recent successes in preventing terrorist attacks in Europe, threats from radical Islamists are real, serious and longterm, according to the European Union's chief antiterror coordinator.
Closer cooperation and exchange of intelligence between the European Union's intelligence services have thwarted nearly a dozen terrorist attacks since 11th September. The most recent success was upsetting a plot by Ansar AlIslam, a group affiliated with AlQaeda, to kill Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during his visit to Berlin last month.

In addition to the Islamist threat, Geert De Vries, the EU's top anti-terrorism man, speaking to United Press International in his office in the European Union headquarters in Brussels, said Europeans should not ignore risks from "classic terrorism" - Europe's homegrown terrorist groups, such as the Basque's ETA. A recent spate of bomb attacks across Spain was claimed by ETA, the Basque separatist organization.
Radical European Muslims who volunteered to fight the US invasion of Iraq and who are now reportedly heading back to their respective countries may pose a more imminent risk, however. This raises concerns that the former jihadis - now hardened with combat experience - may become members of active or sleeper cells upon which al Qaeda or its affiliates could call on for future terrorist operations in Europe.
Claude Moniquet of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center in Brussels, who monitors Islamist terrorism, worries Europeans are inadequately prepared for this new crisis.
Reports of returning jihadis corroborates what U.S. military intelligence sources told UPI almost two weeks ago, that an emerging new trend in the Iraqi resistance of insurgents trying to rid themselves of foreign elements.
One report has recent treks of jihadis across the Iraqi-Syrian border, this time heading in the opposite direction, out of Iraq.
Foreign fighters who joined the anti-US resistance in Iraq are vaguely estimated at from a few hundred to several thousands. However, one well-informed French intelligence source told UPI Iranian officials say about 7500 foreign fighters are engaged against U.S. forces in Iraq.
While the potential return of these fighters to Europe is certainly reason for concern, the good news is that numerous intelligence reports say these groups are not organized. "Calling them 'groups' suggests cohesion," said Mr. De Vries, explaining they are not organized in any real sense. "People have used the word 'franchise,' " he said. "The phenomenon is more nebulous." There is no centralized leadership, explains Mr. de Vries.
Claude Moniquet, author of many books on Islamist terrorism, agrees. He was recently assailed by a young Muslim, a professional soccer player, who accused him of "insulting Islam." His attacker, who Mr. Moniquet said "heralds from a stable family with a good background, did not fit the 'typical' terrorist profile." This makes the job of tracking Islamist terrorists all that much harder. "There is no direct link between poverty and radicalism," noted Mr. De Vries.
"We are not talking about a clash of civilization, but rather a clash within Islam itself," said Mr DeVries. "It is a conflict between the murderous fringe and the overwhelming majority of Islam." Mr DeVries said Europe should encourage moderates to speak out against radicals. The chief European antiterrorist coordinator believes including Turkey in the European Union should provide a positive moderating force.
Turkish Prime Minister Receb Tayyip Erdogan, addressing some 300 Turkish business executives in Brussels Friday, echoed similar thoughts. "One of the greatest threats in the world today comes from terrorism. We have to fight it together," stressed the Turkish prime minister as he continued lobbying European policymakers before their 17th December decision on Turkey's request for admission into the Brussels club.
With close to 70 million people, of which 99 percent are Muslims, Turkey would no doubt help in moderating Islam. However, only including Turkey in the EU will not address the clear and present danger of Islamist terrorism. Mr. DeVries says "both elements of soft and hard power" are needed.
He explains: "Soft power is dialogue. Getting moderate Muslims involved." Indonesians and Turks are moderates and should be more involved in starting a dialogue and encouraging moderates to speak out. Hard power is more muscle, which he says Europeans should not be afraid to use when needed.
Mr Moniquet, the Brussels-based terrorist expert, agrees this is the correct approach. Talk with the moderates and expel the radicals, he says. However, Mr Moniquet is not overly optimistic. The radicals cannot win but can do serious damage.
Khadija Mohsen-Finan, an expert on Arab world affairs with the prestigious French Institute of International Relations - or IFRI - believes the answer to addressing Islamic unrest in Europe is education and integration.
A newly released report from the Pew Forum on religion titled "An Uncertain Road: Muslims and the Future of Europe" states that "the successful integration of European Muslims is crucial to the future of Europe."
Unfortunately, integrating Muslim immigrants in Europe has had little success in recent years. As a result, more young Muslims, second-generation immigrants, turn to Islam as a means of identifying themselves. Part of the phenomenon is what Mr Mohsen-Finan calls "religiosity, rather than religion."
Antoine Sfeir, editor of a French publication specializing in Arab affairs, surveyed several thousand young French Muslims. He was surprised to learn that, despite their claims of adhering to a strict form of Islam, most could not name the five pillars of Islam, the basic tenets of the religion.

Claude Salhani is a senior editor with United Press International.

This is horrid! We are not 'fighting Islamism" - what kind of a newspaper is this?

ps just looked at it - this is a partisan news source - it has an editorial which attacks France!

HB> Whats wrong with attacking France? They know one phrase in all languages of the world; "I surrender".

By Islamism the author means Islamic terrorism, not all Muslims, and IMO the newspaper's attack re: French is related to France's policy supporting this terrorism.

BTW my late maternal grandmother was part Albanian & Part Ukrainian. Albanian Muslims are Bektashi who are quite tolerant.

Islamism is not the same word as terrorism - they need to be separated. There is a branch of Islamism which is violent, and there are other branches which are not. That's like the old WMD joke, or Saddam Hussein=Osama Bin Laden. The 'author' should be more specific about what he *means* by Islamism, or he's going to upset a lot of people. By the way, who says 'France supports terrorism", and where in this article you posted may I find that comment?

The attack in that partisan newspaper I was alluding to was an attack on the French language and was written in a separate editorial piece, not the article you posted - I was talking about how biased the Washington Times is.

I edited my post accordingly.

Your edit did not tell me where the article says "France supports terrorism". It most certainly does not; see post from brunnen in Germany below.

HB, Yup, agreed. It is a put on that would seem to sell well in America today.

Raytan, you flatter me with the question. "what's gone so wrong with America?" I may puzzle on that for the rest of my life. The values I grew up with and four generations of my family confirmed two months ago seem to be minority values in this land. Allow me to kip some of the impossible and address some of the other questions - and note I do not pretend to answer, just address.

"cool to be an unquestioning gung-ho dork," makes me long for the Vietnam days when I was drafted and others protested loudly in the streets. Ah, for the sweet sound of free speech! I have never seen it so intolerant nor fear for speaking out. It seems blind loyalty is the prime requirement. In the old days we accused the communists of 'politics of personal cult' and now it seems we practice the same in believing any one man has all the right answers. We do apply this to overseas leaders as well, declaring Putin all good, Yeltsin a good democrat, all black or all white, or earlier in this thread, all French cowards. There is no thought to Europeans having lived with terrorism for 30 years and NOT having given up their freedoms or weakening human rights.

If we believed our democracy were a farce there would be more talk of stolen elections. Only very few claim such. Rather, perhaps it is democracy gone wrong and the best demagogue won.

No worry about Schwarznegger becoming president, our constitution will not change so quickly, nor is it sure that more than a vocal few want to allow foreign borne become president.

The economy in the toilet? In some areas it seems so, but many of these areas voted for more of the same! They voted by a narrow margin to stay in a foolish war, but then we dare not admit that even among ourselves. A president can be impeached about lying about cheating on his wife, but if a president lies to take us to war, it is grounds for election.

To the lack of health insurance, perhaps the Europeans cannot understand the American streak of independence that seems to run to anarchy. The workers will argue against common health care, and the workers will largely argue against unifying in a common voice against the mega companies that dictate their working conditions and marginal wages and low benefits. In old feudalism the lords kept the peasants fighting among themselves and the common soldier enforcing the order of the day. In modern feudalism it appears human nature and petty jealousies have not changed!

"the founding fathers must be rolling in their graves right now...." I can only imagine that is true.

"the US has always been a bully" not always but sometimes. In working conditions and politics it seems we have rolled back to the 1890's when workers were a dime a dozen, simply to be discarded when used up, and foreign lands were to be invaded for Empire, business and just a jolly good war. My first disappointment in the US was when I realized the Philippines, Cuba and Panama Canal had been in our possession since 1898/1900 and in the '50's & '60's none were democracies, and that right wing pro-business dictators were good and left wing movements were evil. Why did we not export democracy? It seems we never did.

In 1960 I believed an embargo on Cuba was a good thing, a peaceful tool against bad dictatorships, a civilized alternative to war. 40 years later I see it as an ineffective way to bring down a dictator while creating much suffering for the common people.

Ah, that the people have confirmed they like a president who squandered their wealth and their lives and the good will of the whole world when we turned our back on both the world and the War on Terror for a nice adventure in Iraq. Perhaps in 10 or 20 years the politics will turn around, if time still exists then. one of the common sayings is that a democracy gets the kind of government it deserves. I wonder what America and the world have done to deserve such a government. It almost makes you long for the good old days of the Cold War.