RUTHFULLY YOURS

The pipe dream of peacefully integrating self-proclaimed “refugees” from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other terrorist prone countries into European society is falling apart. Germany, which led the way in opening the floodgates to such refugees, has become a leading incubator of jihadist-inspired terrorism in Europe. Prosecutors in Germany have opened up approximately four times as many terrorism-related cases this year so far than during all of 2016, and more than ten times than in 2013. There are at least 705 Islamists in the country said to be willing to carry out a terrorist attack, with thousands of more Islamists also present in the country. Germany’s federal police (BKA) chief, Holger Münch, has said that the terrorist threat posed by jihadists is far graver than any threat from domestic terrorists on the left or the right.

Sex crimes have also risen in areas of Germany inhabited by refugees.  The mayor of one town told his constituents, who were upset by the increase in sexual harassment from the migrants, “Just don’t provoke them and don’t walk in these areas.” German citizens are being told to cede their freedom of movement in their own city to refugees who refuse to accept the legal and cultural norms of their host country.

A parallel system of Sharia law has emerged in Germany, the Gatestone Institute has documented. Islamist morality police patrol some German streets, enforcing Sharia law. One example involves Salafists from Chechnya.  “The vigilantes,” according to another Gatestone Institute report, “are using threats of violence to discourage Chechen migrants from integrating into German society; they are also promoting the establishment of a parallel Islamic legal system in Germany.”

Germany continues to spend billions of Euros in an effort to help refugees integrate into German society with little to show for it. The German government has allocated 21.3 billion Euros to refugee assistance in 2017, which constitutes six percent of its 2017 annual operating budget and more than half of Germany’s annual defense budget. Language, religious and cultural differences cannot be overcome by simply throwing money at the problem.

The mainstream media in Germany tried to cover up the problem, acting as cheerleaders for Chancellor Merkel’s policies. A team of researchers at the Otto Brenner Institute concluded, according to a study reported on in The Local Europe AB, that journalists “put moral pressure on citizens to contribute to the cause of supporting refugees” and treated citizens who were critical of government open door policies as “suspect” and “potentially racist.” Journalists were criticized in the study for echoing “the slogans of the political elite” and not reporting honestly on the reasons underlying the concerns of citizens and some experts. In short, Germany has experienced the same type of condescending media bias so prevalent in the United States.

Despite the press bias, the German people have demonstrated that they do not like the direction their country has been taking. Indeed, the parliamentary election success of the Alternative for Germany party is directly attributable to Chancellor Merkel’s “open door” refugee policy that opened the door to jihadist terrorists. As a result, her party failed to secure an outright majority, forcing it into negotiations to form a coalition government. Although unrepentant for her colossal blunder in allowing more than one million migrants into Germany in 2015, Chancellor Merkel has bowed to political reality. She agreed to a cap of 200,000 on the number of refugees Germany continues to accept each year in order to secure the support of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union as a coalition partner. She may have problems persuading another potential coalition partner, the Greens, to go along with such a cap, however. “When you throw together asylum seekers, refugee contingents, resettlement programs and family members joining refugees all in one pot, and then set a limit of 200,000, one group will be thrown under the bus,” said Simone Peter, a co-leader of the Greens.

Merkel is in a pickle of her own making. If Germany does not take sterner measures to control its borders and limit the number of new “refugees” entering the country, its problems will only get much worse.

Given the failed refugee admission experiment in Germany, it is not surprising to see a reaction against open borders sweep across parts of Europe. The recent election results in Austria and the Czech Republic illustrate the reaction. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic already have restrictive admissions policies, which have predictably resulted in far less terrorist incidents than the more liberal open door countries have experienced. Italy’s former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and head of the ruling Democratic Party, said his country does not have “any moral duty to take in migrants,” as Italy has threatened to bar boats carrying migrants from its ports.

The spectacular failure of Chancellor Merkel’s open door refugee policy has proven that bona fide refugees would be far better served if they could be resettled closer to their home countries in societies where they can more easily integrate. As the evidence clearly shows, at least some of those claiming refugee status to enter Germany and other European countries are jihadists ready to undermine the norms and stability of their host countries. No country has any moral duty to accept such a risk to its own citizens. To the contrary, it has the moral duty to put the security of its own citizens first.