Culture v Religion

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101017/wl_afp/germanymuslimreligionimmigration

This blog entry is in reference to the link above.

I quote these following passages that got my attention :


1. "This approach has failed, totally," she said, adding that immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany's culture and values.

"We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don't accept them don't have a place here," said the chancellor.

2. Turkish President Abdullah Gul, in a weekend interview, also urged the Turkish community living in Germany to master the language of their adopted country.

"When one doesn't speak the language of the country in which one lives that doesn't serve anyone, neither the person concerned, the country, nor the society," the Turkish president told the Suedeutsche Zeitung.

"That is why I tell them at every opportunity that they should learn German, and speak it fluently and without an accent. That should start at nurseries."


3. The integration of Muslims has been a hot button issue since August when a member of Germany's central bank sparked outrage by saying the country was being made "more stupid" by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants with headscarves.


Truth to be told, this article has some relevance to Malaysia since Malaysia is a Multicultural country.

What i can say about Germany's approach to multicultural society is that it's very strict, as you can see from the above passages. They demand for MIGRANTS to speak fluent German and to adopt it's culture. We are talking about MIGRANTS here, not IMMIGRANTS. the difference?

Migrants : Also called migrant worker. a person who moves from place to place to get work, esp. a farm laborer who harvests crops seasonally.

Immigrants : a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.

So logically speaking, if you were going to make a foreign country as a permanent residence, you should be able to talk FLUENTLY in that country's language right as oppose to just wanting to work in a foreign country and later go back to your own country? But taking Malaysia as an example, you still can find a lot of non malays who can't speak Bahasa Malaysia (BM) fluently despite the fact that they were born here. What i'm trying to point out here is that how lenient and flexible Malaysia is towards the non malays and yet there are some non malays who have the decency to be very critical about Malaysia being very bias and not respecting them. Look at Germany, it seems like they demand that you follow their culture. Again, i quote from the article :

"That is why I tell them at every opportunity that they should learn German, and speak it fluently and without an accent. That should start at nurseries".

How many non Malays can speak BM without an accent? But believe me, i've come across a few non Malays who can speak BM without an accent and i'm very proud of them.

Another thing that i wanted to point out is that it's f*cking unfair when u say "country was being made "more stupid" by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants with headscarves." This is simply another attempt at attacking Islam. Why do pin point a person's religion as the source of his flaw and not his culture? Do you want to humiliate Islam and that's why you think because he's a Muslim, he's lazy and stupid? Because the religion doesn't make the followers advance in life?

Look at Japan for example. We know the people there are hardworking. But we don't say Buddhists are hardworking, instead we say the Japanese are hardworking. When we say Japanese are hardworking it means we are saying something about their culture.

So why the "poorly educated" and "unproductive" migrants have to be MUSLIMS? Why don't you attack that person's nationality? Imagine if those migrants are Christians, i'm pretty sure the Germans won't dare say the same thing but instead will attack that person's nationality.

"abandoning practices such as forced marriages." This is another passage i get from the article. Why do you associate force marriage with Islam. I don't know whether it means arrange marriage too but forced/arranged marriage is not an Islam thing. It's a culture thing that is common in Asian countries and even the Arab countries.

So what i'm trying to conclude from all of this is that

1. Be grateful to live in Malaysia where you are not forced to speak BM fluently or to follow and adapt the Malay culture. Up until now, i still remembered when a non Malay friend of mine said to her friend that she's lucky to be living in Singapore and not in Malaysia. I know she can't wait to get out of Malaysia and that's why she can say such thing. I think some people find the Malay culture to be stupid and uncool and that's why they don't follow it compare to following the Western culture where it's sooooooo cool and open.

2. Culture and religion can sometimes be closely connected to a person's character. But culture and upbringing actually influence more on a person's character since we all know that these days people don't really follow religion. Example, if a person works as a prostitute or drinks alcohol or take drugs and the person is a Muslim, is it fair to say "Oooh Muslims are like that? They are soo into drugs!". Look at America. It has become a norm there for people to have children out of wedlock and these people are Christians. Do we say Christians are bad? No. We blame the culture and not the religion because the Christians in Asian countries still find that having children out of wedlock is a taboo, embarrassing, humiliating and a disgrace to the family.