Part 4 of 8 – Islam explicitly forbids Muslim immigrants from assimilating or integrating into Western societies.

Given that, do we want Sharia here?

We must believe in ourselves, our culture, our liberal democracy, our way of life!

We are all immigrants, or descendants of immigrants, and have been peacefully merging, blending and cross pollinating for hundreds of years now, living in a society enriched by our multicultural roots.  We ought to have confidence in our way of life; promoting it, rather than undermining, and then terminating it, with an influx of Muslims.  Why should their way of life supersede ours?

New Zealand is the lucky country; we are a fortunate people; we have every reason to feel secure in our own identity and values.

We should not allow minority rights to automatically take precedence.

However, Muslim asylum seekers and immigrants have become very good at playing the victim card; liberal democracies, by staying silent, support them in this. Fact be known, they were only ever victims of each other and their own beliefs.

It has been incredible to watch as these poor victims have taken over Europe and have now started their slow, but history tells us, unrelenting coup d'état here. We must not let them. 

Our way of life is great; our liberal democracy works well; it is appropriate for we the people of New Zealand, right here, right now, this century. 

Islam’s way of life was also great; once upon a time, in medieval ages, in the middle east; and even along the route it took as its armies conquered tribal territories and peoples who worshipped many Gods.

Time moves on, people change, places are modified, forests cut down, climate warms, ability to communicate enhanced...  Life and ways of living evolve, as learning progresses, as understanding grows, as technology develops, as we learn to control issues that might arise… 

We in New Zealand have come to believe that all people have inalienable human rights; regardless of ethnicity, race, location, religion, sex/gender, sexuality…

We believe in a range of freedoms, including freedom of expression, freedom of worship …

And underlying this we believe in, and support, the rule of law.

I see this as our ‘core culture’. Yet surreptitiously, this tolerance is being taken ‘advantage of’ and threatens to sabotage our very way of life.

Among other things, we must ensure that state and religion remain separate:

•  that our laws are decided by an elected government;
•  that we support equality of the sexes;
•  that we support human rights for all; and
•  the rule of law …

We need to continue to support freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom of worship …

Islam does not support or allow any of these.

But isn’t Islam a religion?  Aren’t its adherents called Muslims?

Shouldn’t we support freedom for this religion too? The answers to these questions are no, yes and to answer the last question, we need to ascertain whether Islam is simply a religion. Or is it so much more than this, that it cannot be called merely a religion? 

So, what is Islam?

Muslims submit themselves to the will of Allah “the one true God.”

In Muslim countries, state and religion are ‘one’. The beliefs, culture, values, judicial system, political system, way of life… are unified, co-joined, entwined…

You cannot separate any one part from another; many parts of which are an anathema to liberal democracies world-wide; and to our ‘western way of life’.

And its beliefs do not support our fundamental human rights.

Yet, we are just one race, the human race. So, in talking about Muslims, it is not about the people, their race, ethnicity, country of birth; it’s about the way of life they are required to live and to promulgate; and promulgate they do.

If we can overlook, for a moment, their overwhelming desire to serve Allah, we find that like us, they are human beings; their humanity is ours too.

A Muslim is a person who loves and is loved, dreams and despairs, has hopes and fears, who celebrates success, mourns loss, and is concerned for planet Earth and its people.

They fear global pandemics, climate change and environmental doom brought about by pollution, nuclear radiation, deforestation… They too, fear terrorism, and feel aggrieved about being typecast.

A Muslim is a child of parents, a parent of children; a husband/wife; a mum/dad; son/ daughter; a sister/ brother… Part of an extended family, from caring communities. 

The culture of their household and extended family is that of the village and country they were born in; and replicates that of where their previous generation came from.

These aspects will be a stronger influence on their current culture than the one-dimensional term ‘Muslim’.

So, Malaysian Muslims (63% Sunni) are very different to Saudi Arabian Muslims; and to Indonesian Muslims (87% Sunni Muslim, yet recognise Christians, Hindu etc).

Every town in the world practices Islam slightly differently, just like those who call themselves protestant practice this in over 47,000 officially registered churches, in slightly different ways, all around the world.

Muslims are multi-dimensional human beings with an identity based on a rich cultural history, inflected with their own set of values, philosophies, beliefs, arts… based on where they come from and their own individual circumstances. 

Muslims are accountants, builders, cabbies, dentists, doctors, electricians, farmers, housewives, plumbers, salespeople, surgeons, tradesmen, writers, zoologists…

And as such, we empathise with, and welcome, asylum seekers, immigrants and refugees from drought-stricken/war-torn lands; no matter what their religion and cultural practices.

And it’s not wrong that we citizens of this lucky country want to help these desperate people; because most of us are not aware that one by one, some (Muslims) are obligated to transplant our ‘way of life’, with theirs; organ by organ.

I support moderate immigration - and believe we should take our share of asylum seekers for humanitarian reasons, so long as these new settlers have a desire to assimilate, acquire the basic habits, attitudes and way of life of our culture; or integrate, adopt the essence of our culture while maintaining their own.

Unfortunately, Muslims cannot integrate, they are not allowed to, as per the literal word of Allah as written in the Qur’an, together with their Sunnah (hadith) and Sharia (law).

 I will explain these in more detail in part 5.

Let’s learn from our past: the early European settlers in NZ thought it would be good to bring rabbits from their homeland and release them here, as a food source and for sport. Within two decades, farmers saw vast tracts of pasturelands ruined by these introduced species.  

So, in 1879 MPs agreed to release mustelids, their natural predators: ferrets, stoats and weasels, to control the rabbits. However, these mustelids found easier prey in our flightless native birds, who unused to being preyed-on, simply sat to see what the approaching stoat was going to do; and were quickly eradicated, or reduced to the point of extinction, before predator free islands were set up to conserve the survivors. (Is this our future?  Stewart Island???)

There is a moral to this story - how can we introduce a people whose scriptures, sunnah and sharia dictate that they must eliminate the way of life of we flightless infidels? It’s all they know. It is not fair to expect otherwise.

Muslims have been finding that people in the west are easy prey, who like our native birds, simply sit and watch as the new immigrants assume control of our political system, religion, laws, lifestyle ... People in the west don’t complain; their hate laws forbid it.  

However, Muslims are required to take over our way of life as they must impose their way. No other is acceptable.  They hark back to the era when they were at their peak; during the west’s medieval period; and insist on imposing their feudal way of life on society today.

We in NZ are tolerant people, we do not complain, in part because we feel guilty doing so, in part because we are not permitted to, and in part because ‘wokers’ pounce on us and don’t allow it.

Having said that, while supporting diversity, inclusion, equality and social justice; plea for sanity and the retention of those Christian moralities that served the west well for two millennia, even in a society where the majority no longer profess belief in a Christian God.

With regards to mass immigration, and the influx of Muslim asylum seekers, politicians throughout Europe did not listen to their people and now Europe is in serious trouble.  The Europe we older folk experienced during our overseas experience, is extinct.

I hope our politicians consider what we and our country’s culture can cope with. What is fair and reasonable for a nation this size?  Will New Zealanders ever want to adopt Islam as our way of life, because allowing Muslims to immigrate here in the short term, will ensure this much sooner than we realise.

DIEing may have its good points, but only so long as it is tempered with intelligent tolerance.

Intelligent enough that we do not allow those who kill each other in their own lands, to come here and impose their way of life on us.