Just a bit of blazing criticism

Call me an alarmist, but the sight of a synagogue aflame in Germany evokes some unpleasant historical associations – whoever strikes the match.

Back in 1938 the Germans were self-sufficient enough to do the job themselves without relying on gastarbeiter, a group nowadays indispensable to the country’s labour-short economy.

As with most migrant labourers moving up from the Third to the First World, German gastarbeiter are encouraged by the indigenous population to do the jobs most Germans are unwilling to take. Such, for example, as painting anti-Semitic graffiti on synagogues or torching them.

The latest encouragement was offered by a German regional court in the city of Wuppertal, Rhine-Westphalia. Last Friday that body ruled that, by tossing Molotov cocktails into the local synagogue, three Palestinians were expressing legitimate criticism of Israel.

Far be it from the justifiably angry young men to be motivated by anti-Semitism or, for that matter, Islam, explained the judge. They simply wanted “to draw attention to the Gaza conflict”.

What adds a delicious touch to the court’s decision is that the original Wuppertal synagogue was burnt down during Kristallnacht, presumably also as justifiable criticism of something or other.

The court handed down suspended sentences, explaining, by way of mitigating circumstances, that the defendants had consumed alcohol before blazing their trail – and anyway, nobody died.

Had the whole congregation been burnt to cinders, as presumably was the intent, a short custodial sentence could have been called for, although the court declined to indulge in such hypothetical speculation.

Nor did the court comment on the truly outrageous fact that these young Muslims were drunk on the job. If they obey Mohammed’s commandment that Jews be killed, they should also heed their prophet’s injunction against boozing. Their local imam is going to hear about this.

Now one has to believe that Germany, currently having an interlude of being a relatively free country, provides enough outlets for less incendiary criticism of foreign states. And in relatively free countries, tossing Molotov cocktails into buildings is seen as a vicious crime rather than an expression of disagreement.

Perish the thought, but were those Westphalian judges perchance venting their own anti-Semitism by encouraging that of the three critics? Verily I say unto you, if Israel didn’t exist, the Muslims and their apologists would have to invent it.

Another such perfect outlet for their pent-up critical spirit would be hard to find. This way Israel can be blamed for Islamic violence all over the world, most of which would take a rather convoluted dialectical process to ascribe to the Jews.

Specifically, looking at the last 20 years or so, one could mention the conflicts between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims throughout the Islamic world, Bosnian Muslims and Christians, Côte d’Ivoire Muslims and Christians, Cyprus Muslims and Christians, East Timor Muslims and Christians, Indonesian Muslims and Christians in Ambon Island, Kashmir Muslims and Hindus, Kosovo Muslims and Christians, Macedonian Muslims and Christians, Nigerian Muslims and both Christians and Animists, Muslims and Christians in the Philippines, Chechen Muslims and Russians, Azeri Muslims and Armenian Christians, Sri Lanka Tamils and Buddhists, Thailand’s Muslims and Buddhists in the Pattani province, Muslim Bengalis and Buddhists in Bangladesh, Muslims and Protestant, Chaldean Catholic and Assyrian Orthodox Christians in Kurdistan.

The impression is hard to avoid that Islam manages to overcome its natural instinct to be a religion of peace with remarkable perseverance and consistency. Obviously one can’t allow the thought to cross one’s mind that Islam is really not so much a religion of peace as a primitive, innately and insanely violent cult. I’m slapping my own wrist even as we speak.

Merkel’s Germany has already admitted more than a million such youngsters inclined to indulge their critical faculty with Molotov cocktails, guns and knives. This is quite worrying, especially in view of Germany’s recent history and its current rise of simon-pure native neofascism.

Other European countries are following suit, if not yet quite on the same scale, both in flinging their doors wide open to Muslims and turning a blind eye on their own burgeoning extremism.

A message to the European powers that be: chaps, are you out of your minds? Don’t you realise what kind of powder keg you’re sitting on? Can’t you see that outrageous court rulings, such as the one in Westphalia, are lighting the wick sticking out of the powder keg?

Don’t you remember that in the seven years following Kristallnacht almost three megatons of explosive were dropped on Germany – this in a pre-nuclear age? By refusing to stand-up to attempted homicide, you’re committing suicide. It’s like playing Russian roulette with an automatic.

Such entreaties are likely to fall on deaf ears. So perhaps German courts will be more receptive to this idea on criminal proceedings:

When Muslims rape a German girl, this should be treated not as a violent crime but justifiable criticism of Western decadence. This moral decline is evident in the fact that German women are allowed to walk the streets – sometimes after dark! – unaccompanied by a male relation.

Moreover, they provocatively display their naked faces and often other parts of their anatomy. In fact, it’s not the rapists but their victims who should be charged: with corrupting the morals of peaceful youngsters who can’t help being critical.