My "bias" is based on what is happening in the world. It is not baseless. I don't have a bias against people because of their origin or race. But I am "biased", if you want to call it that, against the manifestations of an ideology that promotes intolerance. On the other hand, I am open to discourse. So I post these to, on the one hand, vent my frustration with these things happening, and on the other hand, to debate these issues.
I know a lot Israelis in Berlin...it seems to be where everyone wants to move, but most go to great lengths to assimilate and play down where they are from, including a cafe in Kreuzburg that played Israeli music and had Israeli food, but nothing on the sign would tell the passerby what was inside. My business partner, an Israeli who lives there, thought it was needlessly paranoid, and made fun of it. But two days later I met some Arab gentlemen who took an interest in me when they asked where I was from and I told them. They talked a while, smoked hash and one distracted me while the other grabbed my iPhone and yelled "**** you, Jew" as he ran off. All of this, I might add within earshot of twilight's first Adhan. These guys were clearly not inclined towards upholding the pillars of faith (especially considering this was during Ramadan). It was rather jarring to me, because I can't imagine something like this happening here and always took the complaints of anti-semitism from European immigrants to Israel as right-wing exaggerations. Sadly, I'm starting to take them seriously. I've lived around and worked with many Arabs in Israel and the US and never encountered the hoodlum factor that is apparent in Europe. Religious or not, Arab Americans and Arab Israelis that I knew were almost always college educated and engaging. If I had biased expectations at all, they were positive ones. So I never fully understood why Europeans in places like Germany, Denmark, Sweden and France were so hostile to their Arab immigrant populations. But mass media and personal anecdotes constantly said that as a group, Arab immigrants to Europe are far less educated, more inclined towards crime or fundamentalist views, and less inclined to integrate. It's the sort of talk that offended my humanistic, pluaralistic, anti-nationalistic sympathies, but I also had to understand that I can't afford to expect understanding and compassion from people who hate me simply because I speak American English, wear a Texans t-shirt and carry an Israeli ID. They exist, and there's not much I can do about it. Germany is a multicultural society with a lot of immigrants, but there's little complaint of Korean, Vietnamese, Persian, Polish or Croatian organized crime and there's plenty of visibility of those communities there. I certainly can't speak for ATW, but I would say that as a minority in Germany himself, he's probably even more sensitive to those that stir up nativist inclinations around him that make the skinhead set bolder in wanting to get rid of "foreigners." Considering the stories I've heard from Jewish people who live or lived in Europe, I might have a very different point of view if that extreme form of hooliganism was the association with Arab people instead of the association I have in Israel, which is my pharmacist, my doctor, my neighbors, my co-workers, and the guys at the bakery that tried to help me catch a thief that stole my girlfriend's purse. In any case, I feel a hell of a lot safer walking home drunk at 4 AM than I do in any European capital, but I think the disconnect with ATW and many on this board is failing to understand that the imimgrants to Europe from the ME are very different than ones in North America, and are largely unemployed, uneducated and inclined towards crime, all of which makes them a lot less friendly to a multicultural society and fuels the ultra-right. I'll add that I often disagree with Sir Jackie on politics...but I think it's safe to say he doesn't vote NPD. And if anything, I find more value in him posting on things close to home than reading another story about some mob in Pakistan doing something nutty because of religion.
I actually don't care about what provokes these skinheads or not, because they are the dumbest assholes anywhere and not rational. But I do care about regular Germans getting riled up against "foreigners" by these Islamist thugs, although I personally have never felt as a minority in Germany or felt treated as such. I have never really felt as anything other than a regular German and European. Yes, this is very safe to say. I vote for the liberal party, which is called FDP, and sometimes for the conservative party, which is called CDU (in the German electoral system, there are two votes, one for your district's candidate and one for the party - the FDP guy would usually never win the district, so it doesn't make much sense to give that vote to him). Your post is really fantastic. I would like to add something about Berlin that people like B-Bob probably do not know. There was a Jewish quarter in Berlin. After the Nazis came to power, among many other atrocities, they burned down the Jewish synagogue. They also murdered many Jews from Berlin. An artist has made reminding of this his life's work. He created the "Stolpersteine", memorial plaques which remind people of Jews who lived in houses in Berlin and got murdered by the Nazis. When you walk around in Berlin, you will see them. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/07/holocaust-plaques.html And now, with many Muslim people in Berlin because of Turkish and Arab immigration, anti-semitism is very much alive. "You ****ing Jew" is a very common swearword by Turkish and Arabic kids in German schoolyards. It is what they have been taught at home. They really regard Jews as their enemies and they take this attitude with them to Germany. http://www.dw.de/new-wave-of-anti-semitism-in-berlin/a-16272971 For me, this is more than "a local news story". It is something I will keep opposing. And considering the history of Germany and Berlin, even more so.
