“The debate about immigration is really about the integration of non-Western minorities into Western societies, and that is a debate, inevitably, about conflicting values.” – Prey
When the United States abruptly exited Afghanistan in August 2021, a stockpile of weapons and military hardware weren’t the only things left behind. The hard-fought rights for Afghani women gained during the Western-backed government, were quickly abandoned as the Taliban returned to power. With women already being sent home from their jobs, and girls once again being separated from boys, a full return to their dystopian past won’t be far behind. As soon as Sharia is reinstalled as the law of the land, men will once again control their marriage, their education, their employment, and much, much more.
But Afghanistan isn’t the only country where women’s rights are steadily deteriorating. European countries including Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Sweden have seen increasing sexual violence toward women by migrants and asylum seekers from Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. It is in these nations where religious customs and draconian beliefs about women first took root.
In Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s 2021 book, “Prey”, Ali describes in disturbing detail the increasing hostility that many Western women endured following the migration of Muslim men into their countries. With women (and girls) facing harassment, assault, and even rape, liberal governments have chosen to turn a blind eye. Instead of ensuring their personal safety, these bureaucrats all too often side with migrants for fear of racial fallout. Then after putting politics over protection, governments are quick to lecture their complaining public about the benefits of diversity, rather than cede any political ground to their rivals. But women are not just seeing their rights infringed, or their safety threatened, many are fearing for their very lives.
Accepting non-Western asylum-seekers into Western countries, with their antiquated ideas of women, is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. Of course, not all migrating men commit crimes against women or have trouble adapting to Western rules. But ignoring deeply ingrained beliefs is dangerous. In many Muslim-majority countries where Islam is the state religion, and sharia is the law, women are deemed inferior. They are separated from men in public, given a dress code to maintain their modesty, often forced into marriages, sometimes polygamous, and in many countries, subjected to genital mutilation. In fact, a 2016 UNICEF report revealed that 200 MILLION WOMEN alive today have faced some form of genital mutilation.
While young men historically commit most of the crimes in every country, there is no doubt that some Muslim migrants have become an existential danger in their adopted European countries. Enclaves of newly arrived migrants have been turned into no-go zones where even government officials fear to enter. Unemployment can be as high as 80 percent, contributing to the factors that result in an increase in crime and violence in any city or nation. Add to the mix, police who downplay the problem while hiding ethnicity and migrants’ status from crime statistics, legislators who pass laws decriminalizing rape and assaults, and judges who hand out lighter sentences, and you have a manufactured recipe for disaster. Thereby, emboldening new immigrants with a sense of immortality to Western rules and customs.
A key factor in the lack of assimilation of non-Western migrants is the differences between Western women and non-Western women. Women in the West have achieved high levels of acceptance and respect for their position in the community. They experience low rates of sexual assault with most perpetrated by a partner or acquaintance. Now, however, skyrocketing violence is committed randomly against all types of women. As a result, women have begun to self-segregate away from threats and limit their time outside the home. While Western feminists are quick to fight restrictions against women at home, they have shown little interest in their peers overseas. The me-too movement calls for the protection of privileged elite women in high places while avoiding the inconvenient cries of their lesser sisters abroad.
Unfortunately, politics plays a significant role in the regression of women’s rights in Europe. The political left sees potential victims in Muslim immigrants, and therefore, potential voters. They are also highly sensitive to how criticizing Muslims will impact them politically. They would rather ignore than concede the growing problem even as their populist opponents exploit it for their own benefit. It is also politically incorrect to accuse a minority, especially someone of color, of a crime. Labels of racism and xenophobia, used against abused women, only serve to further silence their voices. Unfortunately, women now find themselves at the bottom of the progressive hierarchy of leftist politics, far below the trendier newcomers battling racialism, transgenderism, and intersectionality.
Failing to address the dismal assimilation of some immigrants into Western societies, tarnishes all immigrants, and gives fuel to the nationalist agenda, while ongoing global conflicts and wars guarantee that large-scale migration will continue. The West grew wealthier from its emphasis on individual rights and capitalist markets. Migrants' anti-western values seek to undo all that has been gained. Until governments find a solution to the lack of integration, the ideals we hold dear will be threatened. Worst of all, women will continue to see their freedoms diminished.
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