Sir, – Derek Scally ends his report "Cologne reels after sex assaults on women by gang at New Year's Eve" (January 7th) with the statement that "the so-called Lügenpresse – lying press – has become an easy target" for criticism. Surely the term "easy target" is inappropriate in this case. An "easy target" is a vulnerable group that is easy to bully.
The sex attacks on women in Cologne and other parts of Germany by Arabic-speaking men were ignored for almost a week by Europe’s powerful liberal-left media class. These assaults were only exposed thanks to citizen journalism on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, and so on.
Europe’s media elite has long ignored similar crimes in Sweden, as well as sexual violence against women and girls living in migrant accommodation throughout Germany. Another scandal for social media to expose? – Yours, etc,
KARL MARTIN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – Germans are struggling to come to terms with reports of mass attacks and sexual assaults perpetrated by gangs of Arabic-speaking young men on women who were celebrating the festivity and with attempts by some officials to play down any links to Germany’s new guests, lest the reality might contradict the rose-tinted narrative spun by Europe’s ruling elite.
Many, perhaps most, refugees will be decent people, anxious to escape tyranny, but we must acknowledge that some will have been nurtured with a very different set of societal values and may struggle to understand and accept both the freedoms and responsibilities that are integral to living in modern secular democracies where women are free to travel independently, dress in whatever fashion they choose and consume alcohol.
It is imperative that countries that accept refugees ensure that there is no room for complacency and confusion among our new guests. While cultural diversity is to be celebrated, there is a danger that the scourges of political correctness and populism, afflictions which seems to be the norm among our political classes and the luvvies of the liberal press, may result in an unwillingness to ensure that immigrants and refugees accept and adopt the secular basis of modern European democracies.
Much of the suffering that plagues the Arab world has at its epicentre the grinding intolerance and inequalities that pervade non-secular patriarchal and deeply misogynistic societies whose norms are excused on the basis of religious beliefs, tradition and customs.
As we welcome refugees we must be intolerant of accepting the intolerances that may have been the norm in the failed states they leave behind. Failure to promote and protect our democratic values will increase the risk of creating ghettoes characterised by entire communities who reject our values, seek to recreate the laws, culture and practices of their home countries and whose allegiances lie outside the State.
Much of Europe is already struggling with this painful reality. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN GIBBONS,
Castlebar,
Co Mayo.