Understanding Cologne

Tahrir Square

"One of the hallmarks of revolutionary victory in Tahrir Square has always been rape and sexual harassment. Mobs of men routinely set upon women, isolating, stripping and groping. No one is ever arrested or held accountable, and elected officials shrug their shoulders and blame the victims."
--Wikipedia, Rape in Tahrir Square




Tonight, in New York City, the family gathered for a cocktail party. Both sons, with wives and two nephews, one from each side of the family .

Conversation drifted to the rapes and molestation of women New Year's eve in Cologne, Germany.

Immigrant men from Syria, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries, some with refugee status, apparently molested German women, stole purses from some, and others were publicly raped. 

"What were they thinking?" I asked. "They know Merckel has gone out on a limb for them."


"It's Tahrir Square, all over again," said my older son.

"Oh, well, you know they were young men, and not thinking and besides there is such racism in Germany," said his  quasi wife,  EMC.  

"They have been treated like dirt for years. They're not feeling real grateful," said  my 20 something nephew from New Mexico, via Boston U and now living in New York. He  works for an international NGO and has been to Germany many times. 

EMC had visited  Berlin recently, to visit friends who were Asian and other varieties of non white and she said all her friends were eager to leave Germany because of racial hostility.

I expressed astonishment. I watch the PBS News Hour, read the New York Times and the New Yorker,  and had no idea about any of this.
"Oh, sure. They're treated worse than Mexicans in the US," my nephew said.

My older son knew all about this.  "Well, the Germans are all about rejecting racism, dealing with the guilt by being correct on this issue, but the racism never went away, not really.  It doesn't make the news because every public statement is scrubbed clean, but you see something else if you actually live there."

Certainly, you could see the official efforts to scrub the story clean, as local police, up the line to the office of the President tried to present the story as something less than outrageous:  the facts were vague; it wasn't clear how many women were actually groped; there may have been misunderstandings and exaggerations.

There may well be pervasive racism in Germany, among people who are not officials in the government.  But I'm not sure it is racism which resulted in the outcry against the behavior by Middle Eastern men  described in Cologne.

 If we decry Middle Eastern men It is bias, I understand, in that we are generalizing about a group based on an identification,  rather than on what we know about individuals. 

On the other hand, is it racist to say that men from a whole variety of countries in the Middle East, from Egypt, to Saudi Arabia to Syria to Iran to Turkey, share a view of women which is abhorrent to Westerners from Europe and the United States? Whether they are Sunni or Shia, Iraqi or Iranian, whether they are religious Muslims or secular, there is one strain which appears to run through all these cultures from Libya to Iran, and that is that women do not belong in public unless they are chaperoned by men, and if they are out alone, they ought to be taught a lesson by being raped. 

You can argue about whether it is fair or reasonable to extrapolate from the actions of a few men in Tahrir Square or in Cologne to all Middle Eastern Men. You can say there is nothing in Islam which condones the molestation of  unchaperoned women in public.  You can say that Egyptian authorities did not condone the rape of the Dutch journalist in Tahrir Square, that they did not condone the rape of the American journalist in the same place.  

But you can also ask: where the outrage against these acts expressed?  There was outrage from American and Dutch men visible enough, but where was the million man march supporting the women among Egyptian men? 

These, you may say are cultural differences, not racial, and I would agree. But we can still generalize from the specific to the general:  Middle Eastern men do not value the sanctity of women who wish to walk independently in the world.  Maybe not all Middle Eastern men believe unaccompanied women are little better than whores, but if enough Middle Eastern men believe this and if other tolerate this, then it is fair to generalize. Until Middle Eastern men put themselves publicly in front of this issue, then we can assume they are in the same position as white Southern Americans who did not march with Blacks in the civil rights movement. Unless you are publicly with us, we can assume you are against us. Qui tacit, constentit. 

And if you accept that proposition: Can we allow Middle Eastern men to immigrate to our societies  if they embrace rape and molestation as a means of disciplining women?

I am not saying we should forbid all Middle Eastern Men to seek refuge in Europe or the USA. I'm not calling for banning Muslim refugees because they are Muslim. 

 But I am saying any refugee and any immigrant to who is allowed in has to be explicitly instructed in the rules we play by and must understand if he violates certain really important rules, like those against rape and sexual molestation then he can expect to be swiftly deported back to from wherever he acquired those attitudes.

We may have to say, "Look we understand you may not condone rape, but we have reason to believe this may be a cultural value and if it is, well you better get over it or suffer the consequences."

Some will say this is like branding every pit bull a threat to the community when so many pit bulls are gentle and wonderful pets.  I would think there is a better analogy: If we see an orthodox Jew, wearing his yarmulke at a pig roast, we may not expect him to eat  the ribs, but we expect him to refrain from attacking the guests.