The Irish Support The Danes

At least two that I know of do.

Seamus, a commenter on Theodore Dalrymple Looks at Old Europe left some remarks about (the Republic of) Ireland’s good fortune in not having followed the EU down its socialist, statist dark hole. Of course, he has only to look at Northern Ireland to know just how lucky they are in the south. The once-proud rebels of the IRA have deteriorated into a group of common thugs and terrorists who consort with mobsters and Hamas. And the evidence of such allegiances shows in Northern Ireland’s poor economy and fragile religious peace. But then, who did Northern Ireland have to lead them but the British who so ruinously used them over the centuries. As they would have continued to do to us had we not be strong enough, and far away enough, to break free.

The other supporter of the Danes is one of my Dublin cousins, who happens to have a blog (since before there were blogs) and is not only pro-American and libertarian, but he has a veritable wealth of information on libertarian and freedomist topics. I suggest you visit the website’s home page to see what’s on offer. There is always some enlightening essay.

Today I went to his Moderate Islam page. As is usually the case, he has lots of links to pertinent sub-topics, but I’ll give you a flavor of his content and style:

For me, Islamic fundamentalism is under siege in its home countries, and will eventually lose out to democracy and freedom. The idea that Islamic fundamentalist immigrants could come to the West and eventually threaten our freedoms I find a bit far-fetched.

My instinct is totally pro-immigration, for many reasons:

I believe human rights and western freedoms are universal, and all races can participate.

Around the world, millions of people who live in tyrannies long for freedom and democracy. We have a duty to give pro-democracy activists, anti-communist dissidents, anti-Islamist dissidents and western freedom-lovers a haven. The west is the natural place for them to set up their opposition parties, newspapers, websites and governments-in-exile, which we should support.

We have a duty to give a haven to people fleeing genocide and persecution.

I believe free movement of people, like free trade, is good for the economy. Skilled people move where the work is. Attempts to stop this are like protectionism, and restrict the economy.

I despise anti-immigration movements that are based on ethnic purity. Some of the paleo-conservatives seem to be in or near this territory. I think the desire for ethnic purity is one of the single worst ideas in human history. My country, the Republic of Ireland, is far too ethnically pure already, having lost most of its ancient Protestant and Anglo-Irish population. In general, ethnic purity is a sign of failure. Immigration is a sign of success.

Having said all that, there is one troubling issue:

How about letting in people who hate you and threaten you? To oppose immigration per se (or be against all immigrants once they are in) seems racist to me. But the western left ignores the fact that immigrants may hate western freedoms, and want to end them, and force their primitive, barbarous ideas on me. Obviously, not all immigrants have been threatening like this, so we must be careful to focus on the ones who have issued such threats. At the moment this category consists almost entirely of Islamists who openly want to destroy our freedom and some day set up sharia law in Europe.

My response to the existence of such appalling people is as follows:

Let in freedom-lovers, exclude freedom-haters. - Yes, I agree that people who hate western freedoms should not be allowed in. Islamist activists should not be let in, even if they are being persecuted. West-haters can be hard to identify on arrival, though. You need to be careful that your rules and checks do not exclude democracy-loving Muslims who are fleeing Islamist religious states. These are exactly the people you want to let in.

I've never met Mark, or any of my Irish relatives. My mother was born in Dublin, and my father was born in Limerick. But the tales of my family are too sad to carry back and forth across the Atlantic. So I know my cousin only through his work, which I much admire.

For sure all my libertarian friends will find his intellectual leanings congenial. Perhaps they could visit Dublin University and chat him up while they're busy dropping tourist dollars on Eire.

Oh...by the way, what Mark said about "racial purity" is spot on. When I married the Baron, my mother remarked dryly that it was about time we widened the genetic pool. He's Anglo-Saxo-German-French with a bit of Scots-Irish thrown in for good measure.