Mixing Cultures is like Mixing Chemicals
When you mix cultures, it is a little like mixing chemicals. If you have children hanging around at a chemistry lab, they might be tempted to mix a few chemicals together and see what happens. In real life this is dangerous. Certain chemicals explode when put together just as taking two medicines at once can sometimes be fatal.
A Labor Shortage
France has had a labor shortage and a shortage of good soldiers for decades. Their solution, like many other countries is to take in members of drastically different cultures, give them citizenship, and live with them Sometimes this mixture of cultures results in a happy marriage. However, other times it does not.
Christians vs. Muslims.
In many parts of the world, there have been serious conflicts between Christian and Muslim communities. These conflicts did not start overnight. They have been in existence for over one thousand years. I remember reading about how Muslims would force Christians in Egypt to get a tattoo of a cross on their arm in the middle ages. To me this is a Nazi practice, but this is what happened. In India, there has been a constant conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims since the very first influx of Islamic invaders long time ago. Islam is not the problem. The problem is the aggressive expansion of a group of people. It doesn’t matter who the group is — the problem is the aggressive behavior which incidentally is banned in Islam according to the Koran.
But, Dubai doesn’t have a conflict… why not?
In places like Dubai, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Hindus live peacefully together. In my opinion, the reason it is so peaceful is that the country is owned and controlled almost purely by Muslim locals. Sure the guests outnumber the locals 10:1, but the ownership is not in question. In France, members of a foreign religion and culture are citizens and if they turn on the host culture (which some of them do) then the host has their hands tied. In Dubai, if you break Shariah law, they can throw you out, and sometimes they do. But, in France, if you conflict with the indigenous culture in a dangerous way, the government can’t do anything until after you’ve torn the country into pieces..
It was an honor killing
The massacre at the media company was not a terrorist attack in my point of view. It was an honor killing done by people who felt insulted that Charlie Hebdo’s staff had undermined the dignity of their main prophet. Honor killings are not something understood by the West, but are common in Greek and Islamic culture as a way to regain your dignity after being degraded, or suffering the rape of one of your female relatives. The attack was an avenging of an insult. In my peaceful opinion, murdering people as a response to an insult is as immoral as any other type of killing.
According to my guru, someone else’s life is not yours to take!
Maybe Muslims should have had demonstrations to protest the indignity inflicted upon them by these cartoonists. It is a sure face that Muslims would gain a lot more respect in France and worldwide if they systematically solved their problems in the most diplomatic way possible. Maybe one day they will. Let’s keep a positive thought.
I blame it on the French!
I blame the recent turmoil in France not on Muslims, and not even on Atheist cartoonists with big mouths (and big pens.) I blame French security. Several of the individuals involved in the various attacks in France had criminal records in the French intelligence database and were either known terrorists or suspected terrorists. It was not like this was their first offence. One of them recruited members for ISIS. If you are going to let known violent criminals roam freely throughout your country, of course a massacre will happen. It is guaranteed, especially these days. America used to allow some of the most violent terrorists in the world to come to our country. It took us until 2001 to figure out that this was not a very intelligent policy. You don’t need a PhD in Nuclear Physics to understand that if you let bad guys run loose, trouble will soon follow. My suggestion to the French is to separate dangerous people from society and perhaps separate their families from society too even though that could be construed as a violation of their rights. Do you protect the rights of families who breed murderers, or do you protect the rights of those who are peaceful members of society? This is a question the French need to think deeply about before it is too late.
On a brighter note, Muslims, Jews, and Christians live peacefully side by side in France for the most part. So, our little irreversible chemistry experiment is okay most of the time — for now…