The provocative tracts and the media circus featuring German Federal Bank representative Thilo Sarrazin is rousing several uncomfortable debates that I do not believe are palatable material for a public forum. There is too much taboo in it. The vitriol and the extreme claims are not helpful and do not forward Sarrazin's arguments, nor really lend much credence to those who disagree with him.
Sarrazin is not right but people may be too quick to dismiss his assessment, which may be a distasteful truth: there may be difficulties with immigration and there may be the potential for cultural clashes but the situation that Sarrazin presents (however prejudicially and imperfectly) invites the question to the public what kind of Germany do you want, inclusive and tolerant or otherwise. Maybe, however, Germany's dogmatists need to recruit Jesus in this process, like America's ambassadors of love, peace and understanding, the Tea Party set, or stellar models of integration, like occupied Palestine, who the US is currently trying to mediate while at the same time addressing its own hateful debate over the mosque not only at Ground Zero but mosques in general and drones patrolling the border with Mexico. Further, I wonder what would have been made of Sarrazin's book had he substituted Jewish and Muslim people with "Russians." Would there have been this uproar or just blasรฉ nods of concurrence and what does that mean about the tenor of tolerance in general?
