NP "What is Fascism?"

[jbor]

on 21/2/04 2:54 AM, Ghetta Life wrote:

> It seems to me you are arguing that the state needs to liberate certain
> children from their families in order that they not be subject to what you
> deem repressive religious or moral standards.  Do you have any evidence that
> the girls in France wearing scarves wish to be liberated from their culture
> and families?  Also, how do we as a society decide WHICH religions/cultures
> are repressive and need to be suppressed?  This is a slippery slope...

Of course they choose to wear it; women of some Muslim faiths, and
particularly those living in the West, don't wear the hijab. It's quite
bizarre and worrying to see repression being justified as "liberation", and
it's most definitely the answer to the question in the subject header.

What we're seeing with the rise of these right-wing European governments and
their cheer squads is essentially a rebirth of the Eurocentric, imperialist
and supremacist perspectives of the 19th Century: because "we" don't wear
the hijab or yarmulka, no-one should, because "we" are the real citizens and
"they" are just outsiders who will be tolerated in "our" land only so long
as they abide by "our" rules and cultural expectations.

on 20/2/04 8:36 AM, jbor wrote:

> Next thing you know they'll be applauding the sending "home" of all those
> Dutch and German "guest workers".

S/b Dutch <refugees> and German "guest workers". My typo.

best