Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by tyho | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

tyho

In Europe she would be likely be dead or in protective custody.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10655679/Teacher-30...

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20211015-the-violence-sho...

View on HN

The response from a caricature vs a respectful historical depiction may be very different.

Remember that in US this happened not a long time ago: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabbing_of_Salman_Rushdie

It's incredibly sad seeing Shia extremism making its way to North America. This was only a few months ago too. What's even scarier about this case was that the Iranian government issued a fatwa on the victim in 1989, and then Iranian state media celebrated the attack 30 years later.

Oddly enough, Shias are much more tolerant of depictions of Muhammed, it's the hardline Sunni who really have a problem with it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depictions_of_Muhammad#Conte...

"In Europe" often doesn't makes sense as a generalisation. Both the UK and France have a significant Muslim population. That does not extend to Europe in general though. France is ~6% Muslim with large communities. Poland is well <0.1% with anti-islam ideas being common.

They have very large representations compared to every other major non-christian religion in european countries. Islam is also the fastest growing religion in the world, by far.

On top of that, it is the religion that gets in unproportional amount of media time in every european country due to all the problems it represents.

> There were increases in the number of people who described themselves as “Muslim” (3.9 million, 6.5% in 2021, up from 2.7 million, 4.9% in 2011) and “Hindu” (1.0 million, 1.7% in 2021, up from 818,000, 1.5% in 2011).

UK Census 2021 (England and Wales): https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/cultural...

Germany is also ~6% Muslim. But one could argue whether Germans are a significant part of "Europe". Belgium is ~5% but that's just the seat of the EU, not a real country. Spain is ~3%, which is "interesting" given the history of Moorish conquest of Iberia and the Treaty of Grenada and the Inquisition. 2-3% in Italy, but Catholics and Muslims have a long tradition of living together in harmony. Poland's % may be a result of anti-Islam sentiment rather than a cause. But again, are Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland really part of Europe? "Europe" is just a collection of EU members anyway, if it means anything at all. Which means Turkey will soon be "in Europe".

> which is "interesting" given the history of Moorish conquest of Iberia and the Treaty of Grenada and the Inquisition.

Why? In Spain either you converted to Christianism 500 years ago or you got expelled. Most of Moors which came into Iberia where from modern Morocco origin and a few from Algeria. And a lot of them have "interesting" beliefs, such as drinking in private.

Also, every Moroccan has satellite TV and for sure they follow the Spanish soccer Liga.

They are very aware of Flamenco in Andalusia and the tiling from toilet rooms, which are the same in Andalusia and Morocco, or pretty close. Thus, they get assimilated fast in Spain to the Western values.

Precisely. It is interesting it is not more given the history and proximity to Morocco. It is interesting it is not less given the expulsions and forced conversions.

Morocco and Andalucia are pretty close, you can spot Morocco´s coast from some places. Also, there is the issue of Ceuta and Melilla.

Yes, only a stone's throw. Why doesn't Spain have the ~6% Muslim population of France or Germany?

Getting goods from Spain can be done without needing to make a big trip, thus, needing to settle yourself for long in France.

So immigration into Europe is about convenient access to goods? Does that sound right?

More like having a better life compared to Africa.

France keep strong historical links with several North African countries that were its french-speaking former colonies. This probably generated a lot of migration between France and Africa fullfiling the requisites to be granted French citizenship.

In the case of Germany is probably because they received a lot of Turkish workers after WWII.

> France is ~6% Muslim with large communities.

I'm French and there were many muslim kids in my school when I was a kid (a few decades back). This type of "incident" didn't happen in those days. I don't remember religion ever being an issue. These kids would often respect ramadan and not eat pork, but this was the only visible religious thing, and nobody really cared about it.

I don't know what exactly has changed, who are the extremists and where they got their ideas, but something has changed.

Ah. France. The country who’s president is opposed to the right to self-defense too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com