And you, what, "regard" them? And your proposed solution to their problems is to bar them from entering your country? How is that supposed to help them in any way? Fuck your faux-moralistic takes. I care deeply about other people, and I think it's wrong to cynically use them as props to fuel a twisted political agenda as you do.
What the fuck are you talking about?
The Middle-East has a bunch of social and cultural tools, that have evolved over the centuries, to deal with Islamic extremism. They've had to deal with this nonsense since Mohammed. They're aware of it. I suggest reading up on the history of the Ottoman Empire if you want a master class on it. An open, liberal and tolerant culture takes a long time to develop and is very easy to derail. We learned this the hard way in the 1920'ies and 1930'ies. I think liberal values are superior and worth defending.
I have no doubt Muslims who live in the west will over time liberalise. Because it's a nicer life. But culture evolves slowly. Until that happens western culture and western values is vulnerable. I'm not saying Muslims will cause the downfall of the west and create a western caliphate. I don't think there's any risk of that. But it will lead to a hardening of society. Less liberal. More conservative. Tougher on crime. Women will be less safe. There will be more violent crime. Normalisation of domenstic abuse. Etc. I don't like that. It's already a reality in Sweden. I now live in Denmark. I like Denmark. I like Denmark to stay like this.
The last 10 years have made a dramatic cultural shift in Stockholm. The combination of Afghan and Syrian (came in 2015) refugees making the streets of Stockholm unsafe, and an influx of huge sums of money from successful IT companies, have created a walled city of sorts. The night streets of Stockholm are dead. The people have retreated indoors into luxury flats and castles in the country. If you're rich or hot, great, isn't it. But if you're not, you face social isolation. A rigid class system is developing in a country that 30 years ago was famous for it's equality. The liberal and tolerant ethnic Swedes don't feel at home in their own country and have retreated into walled sanctuaries. The walls don't have barbed wire. It's just hedges or even an imaginary walls. But for an outsider, who doesn't have access, that wall is very much reality.
In the 1980'ies the Sweden democrats were a conservative neo-Nazi party with it's leaders making Nazi salutes at party meetings. Their leaders got into street brawls after yelling slurs at Middle-Eastern immigrants. The same party with the same leaders is now Sweden's second biggest political party. They're softened their rhetoric. But I'm not fooled. These are the same people as in the 1980'ies. They might win next election. And I get it.
When stuff happens people react and change. That's what has happened in Sweden. I'm Swedish. But I really don't like Sweden anymore. That's why I don't live there now. I am never coming back.
Anyway... my girlfriend is politically active in Sweden. Lives across the border. She's very much Swedish and loves the country. But she too feels the strain.
I think the progressive, liberal and tolerant West will do more good for the world acting as a beacon of hope, rather than trying to talk unwilling immigrants into conforming to something they don't want to. We can't force people to be free. That has to come from them. And if they don't want to... there's not much we can do. I do think they will want to. Sooner or later. But it can take generations. Until then I think it's wisest to limit immigration from overwhelmingly conservative countries to a trickle.
Edit: And if our goal is to protect persecuted gays in Sweden they need to come without their families. Because their own families is the biggest threat to their safety. So giving refugee status to individual gays makes, way more sense than to invite their whole families. We also do this in all of Scandinavia. If you're gay and Middle-Eastern and don't live in Israel, you're free to settle in any Scandinavian country. The doors couldn't be more open. Anywhere in Scandinavia. Scandinavia really really likes being a safe sanctuary for gays. But we can't be that if we also allow large numbers of immigrants from the Middle-East.
If I really piss you off will you punish me by not calling me woke anymore either?
