Leslie Sacks
Denmark, long the liberal, open society that welcomed immigrants, has done an about face. After being the symbolic envy of Universalists, of Socialists, of cultural liberalism, Denmark today has the strictest immigration policy in Europe.
The Muslim population in Denmark, constituting a mere 4% of the total, refuses to integrate, consumes 40% of the welfare, and constitutes a majority of the country’s convicted rapists. The Danes now acknowledge that their core values of personal liberty, free speech, equality for women and tolerance of other ethnic groups are incompatible with Islam as they know it.
Muslim leaders openly advocate introducing Islamic law in Denmark. Danes at the forefront of advocating free speech and Western values are subject to fatwas and increasingly violent attacks from the Muslim population.
This haven of tolerance and openness has opted for survival and rationality. For citizenship, the country now requires of new immigrants:
- 3 years of language classes
- tests on Denmark’s history, culture and language
- 7 years of residency prior to application
- proven job opportunities and commitment to work
New mosques will not be allowed to be built in Copenhagen. Assimilation will be actively promoted. The country that once courageously and righteously saved their 7,000 Jews from the Nazi death camps now is accused of racism.
America is no stranger to accusations of profiling, political incorrectness and racism. Yet Muslims worldwide still beat down our doors to gain immigration status to the U.S. – they tellingly do not do likewise to the majority of UN nations habitually accusing the U.S. of racism. When did Cuba or Russia, Syria or even Saudi Arabia, those bastions of tolerance and freedom, last receive a deluge of immigrant applications?
So we in the U.S. spend our time being sued by aggressive Imams testing nervous airlines. Open season has been declared on the West by demanding Islamist organizations hoping to force the government and our municipalities to kowtow into passive submission. We now clearly need footbaths in every university restroom. We also need two taxi lines at every airport – one for those with short skirts, dogs or alcoholic beverages and one for Shari’a-compliant Americans.
Yet little spunky Denmark is showing us and everyone the way. They opened their borders and their coffers to welcome Muslims, in a show of remarkable generosity and goodwill. Now, bruised and battered by an unappreciative, increasingly fundamentalist, and sadly uncompromising Muslim community, they are closing their doors and battening down the hatches.
It is only a matter of time before America’s similar generosities and freedoms are likewise pressured. It will not be too long before our remarkable naiveté, our exquisitely refined political correctness, are replaced by realistic pragmatism and a strong commitment to our own cultural survival, to uncompromising freedoms and our non-negotiable security and liberty.
A new found taste for Danish pastries perhaps?
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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Leslie Sacks is an art dealer and gallerist in Los Angeles. Before that, he founded and operated Les Art International in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was active in opposing apartheid and in supporting the Johannesburg Jewish community.
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Guest Contributor
Nis
06/08/2008
Being danish, living in copenhagen all my life (except a year in paris and a half in NYC) I find the description of my country simplyfied to a degree that is more misleading than informative. The discussion of how to deal with the immigration problem is major here, but so is the diversity of opinions. Some of the above statements (some of which are predictions) are neither official govermental politics nor following the major pools of public opinion.
The superb economy and stability of the country isn’t based on a strict immigrationpolicy, but upon a flexibel and highly educated population with intensive healthcare and social security. Please bring that inspiration to the other side of the pond instead.
- Nis
Esther Kandel
05/29/2008
Finally some hope emerges! Life does seem to come full circle, swinging from the WW2 era Danes who saved their Jewish population overnight, to the ultra liberal country it then became which so easily could have alligned itself with the radical Islamic movement as seems to be the fashion. Instead, it appears that the pendulum swings the other way in Denmark. Heartening. Let’s hope Mr. Sacks is correct on his prediction vis a vis America’s attitudes.
TonyfromOz
05/18/2008
For me, this was the most telling part of this post, and I hope you don’t mind if I copy and paste it here.
“When did Cuba or Russia, Syria or even Saudi Arabia, those bastions of tolerance and freedom, last receive a deluge of immigrant applications?”
What escapes is this. If living in those countries where Islam is the norm, and people consciously decide to leave, emigrate to a Western Country, and then to follow that religion in their newly adopted Country, why then do they actively seek to introduce the draconian measures they left, into their newly adopted Country. If they want it so badly, then (a) why leave in the first place, or (b) why not just go back there.
As mentioned in the post itself, they always pick Countries where there is freedom to follow different faiths, freedom to express themselves, freedom of equality of education for female children as well as male children, freedom to respect the rights of women, freedom to respect the rights of others, freedom to exist in a secular, and a democratic State, freedom to protest Government decisions, freedom to actually vote, and most importantly, the freedom to go about daily life without fear, from worrying if you can take a plane, a bus, a train, go to the market, eat out anywhere, even drive on the roads.
Why is it we only hear of demonstrations in free Western civilisations, and not in those Countries mentioned in the post.
No, they eye those Countries where those freedoms exist with envy, thinking that they are such nice places to live, so they move there, seek out their own, and then want their old ways back, and yet still have the freedoms and the wealth and opportunity of that new Country.
If I wanted to move to a new Country, I would so desperately do as much as I could to change to the way the people in that country are, for fear of being forever cast as a foreigner. To me that would just be good manners.
No, I’m happy where I am thank you.
We say, let them come, but then let them become like us, support our freedoms that they strove so hard to come to, live with us us in harmony without trying to change us into what they were.
The thing is this. They want to come here. We don’t want to go there.
Tony.
papundits
05/17/2008
Abigail,
Thank you for your comment and for correcting us.
I guess it was the excitement of the Danish finally coming to their senses that caused the author to make that error.
I like your articles.
Keep up the good work!
–ed
abigail esman
05/17/2008
Just to be clear – actually, it is the Dutch, not the Danish, who have the strictest immigration laws . Denmark’s program was created on on the basis of Holland’s, which requires testing on Dutch language and culture even before immigrants from Muslim countries enter its borders (not required of Western immigrants, for obvious reasons, though Human Rights Watch doesn’t seem to understand that). Those requirements, iin Holland, anyway, stand not for citizenship (which would replicate America’s citizenship requirements, by the way) but for residency – green card status, if you will.
And yet, even while Holland has the highest radicalization rate among Muslims in the West, the Parliament refuses to ban burkas. Go figure.