"Official government policy toward Muslim immigrants has also differed
vastly from nation to nation. Britain (1 million to 2 million Muslim
immigrants out of a total population of 60 million) and Holland (1 million
Muslim immigrants out of a total population of 16 million) have for the
most part embraced a flexible, multicultural approach. Instead of
assimilating, immigrants have been encouraged to maintain their
time-honored, traditional religious and cultural orientations. In many
instances, the state has actively nurtured such allegiances, practically,
financially and rhetorically. As visitors to these countries well know,
nightly newscasts might readily be confused with ad spots for the United
Colors of Benetton."
full: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070409/wolin
This was written by Richard Wolin, a NYC professor who is best known for
his books on German philosophy. His politics are questionable at best. His
speciality is assailing postmodernism on the campus, but from the same sort
of thinly veiled neoconservative angle as Denis Dutton, the creep who runs
the Arts and Letters website--now a subsidiary of Chronicle of Higher
Education. Here's something that Wolin wrote for the Chronicle a while back
to give you an idea of where he is coming from:
Chronicle of Higher Education, October 24, 2003
Are Suicide Bombings Morally Defensible?
By RICHARD WOLIN
In recent weeks a publishing scandal involving charges of anti-Semitism has
dominated the feuilleton sections of leading German dailies. The debate has
embroiled one of the nation's most respected publishing houses, the
Frankfurt-based, left-liberal firm of Suhrkamp Verlag. It has also
implicated the world-renowned philosopher Jürgen Habermas for having made a
controversial publishing recommendation. More generally, the dispute raises
an issue of fundamental importance concerning the ground rules of the
continuing, fractious debate over Middle East politics -- an issue familiar
to American academics: At what point does vigorous criticism of Israeli
policy dovetail with rank anti-Semitism?
At the center of the maelstrom in Germany is a slim volume by the
philosopher Ted Honderich, who until his retirement taught at University
College London. The book, After the Terror, is an attempt to reassess
global politics in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Written in an
offhand, chatty style, its main point -- unarguable, as far as it goes --
is that first-world nations bear responsibility for third-world nations'
impoverishment. Yet the lines of clarity -- and reasonability -- quickly
blur when Honderich attempts to define the nature of that responsibility
and its consequences. At issue, in his view, is not just political
responsibility for the deleterious economic consequences of American-backed
globalization policies on the part of the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, but also a direct moral
responsibility allegedly shared by all Westerners. What makes that argument
problematic is its blanket refusal to acknowledge any indigenous causes of
third-world poverty, be they geographic, climatological, regional,
sociological, or political. Rather than promote intelligent reflection on
the causes of global social injustice, Honderich is interested in playing a
simple blame game. Because Westerners (or at least a good number of them)
live affluently, while most third-world denizens languish in squalor, the
former are by definition morally culpable exploiters.
Further suspicions about Honderich's acuity surface when one searches for
the connecting link between his nominal topos -- third-world misery -- and
his 9/11-inspired title. He endorses the perilous view that, under certain
circumstances, the 2001 terrorist attacks could be construed as a
justifiable response to global impoverishment. In various passages, he
apotheosizes Osama bin Laden as the avenging angel of the wretched of the
earth. Since the attackers proceeded without a reasonable expectation that
their crimes "would work to serve a justifying end," their actions remain
condemnable.
(clip)
--
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