Rightwing parties are on the rise across Europe. Should we worry? Such movements have come and mostly gone for decades. They draw strength from immigrant surges and economic woes. The Pegida rallies – Germany’s “pinstripe Nazis” – now drawing thousands of marchers to German cities, are specifically anti-Muslim. But are they different from similar movements in France, Sweden, the Netherlands or Britain?
Any expression of racial hatred from Germany is bound to be alarming, but every nation has its political fringe.
[TOP RATED COMMENT 206 votes] It's disturbing that legitimate fears about islam are dismissed as 'racism'. In my working life, I have worked alongside many, many people of, shall we say, 'muslim heritage'. I have to say that, the more 'islamic' they were, the harder they were to get on with. Those who didn't bother, or who only paid lip-service, included many splendid people I'm proud to have known.
The problem is islam, not race.
[SECOND 198v] "Somehow the temperature has to be reduced before the lid blows." At last someone on the Guardian gets it.
We need to drastically reduce immigration, and aggressively promote integration, by asserting a common set of core enlightenment values. No more pandering to minority cultures, and the liberals' beloved multicultural experiment must be thrown down the toilet.
[THIRD 126v] If it's overheated, it's only because the bloody minded mass migration brigade have refused to listen when people say they simply do not want this happening to their countries.
[FOURTH 107v] "The temperature has to be reduced".
I suspect Jenkins means that we should criticise Muslims less, rather than Muslims should, you know, DO something about problems in their community. [Guardian Cif] Read more
