I'm sick of hearing American conservatives telling us what to do

[bus man]

Originally Posted by philkirkham

There are 1.3 billion people living in China
If only 10% of them move to Europe or America there will be no more Europe or America

is that how the argument works?

Of course, there would still be a Europe or America. But if 10% of China's population moved there, these places would become culturally unrecognizable to their current inhabitants.

Look at it this way. There is a building in Istanbul called Hagia Sofia, is there not? Its appearance today is more or less similar to what it was 100 years ago, or even 1,000 years ago. But the person in the year 1016, who would have used it to worship the Christian god, would consider it to be a completely different place back then than it was in 1916, when it was used to worship Allah; and both of them would consider it to be a completely different place today, when it is used to worship no one.

The physical landscape and the (pre-existing) architecture of Europe would look more or less the same if the population were to become primarily Muslim; but culturally it would be unrecognizable.

[bryan85]

Originally Posted by philkirkham

If Europe wants to take them what business is if of yours?

What business is it of yours what I think and say? Stating things like that could be said to just about any comment made on this website. Try to be a little more original.

[bryan85]

Originally Posted by lukas1973

It's a win-win situation for both sides. Europe is surely more capable to help those refugeees to start a new live than Pakistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia. Europe will benefit from the immigration in the medium-term, because of a lack of working age people. Europe is getting more diverse. It's an enrichment. A live without a regular contact to people from many different places would be very boring.

Maybe what you say is true, but I'll take the boredom.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by bryan85

.... Please explain to me why the other Islamic countries don't "welcome" their brothers from Syria? Or, why don't they help re-settle the Palestinians?

Syrian refugees: Jordan and Turkey have taken in many, and I believe maybe Lebanon as well.

However, it will be a cold day in hell before Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states take any. These latter places enforce a rigid form of orthodox Sunni Islam enforced by the governments, and they would not take any Shia refugees based on the fact that they are heretics to them, and many of the Syrian Sunni Muslims are not hyper-orthodox enough to be desirable. Furthermore, many of the Syrian refugees have already shown a willingness to take up arms against a government they didn't like. These are the last type of people that the Saudi and Gulf monarchies want within their borders. As for Pakistan, it is pretty poor, and is also entangled in its own internecine strife among its various forms of Islam...so, poverty aside, they are not looking for yet more religious strife.

What Westerners seem unable to grasp is that what is going on in the Middle East in no small measure a religious war, Islam is a religion fractured by sectarian differences just as Christianity was and is. The "politics" of the wars in Iraq and Syria are largely religious politics.

Palestinians: They are not interested in resettling Palestinian refugees because from their point of view these people belong back in the homeland from which European Jews ejected them. To encourage them to settle permanently elsewhere would make it appear that these countries accept the Zionist state and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as legitimate.

[philkirkham]

Originally Posted by bryan85

What business is it of yours what I think and say? Stating things like that could be said to just about any comment made on this website. Try to be a little more original.

read the title of the thread