Ministry of Propaganda - 04/Jan/2005: "Immigration Tests"

[Previous entry: "Blogging About Intel"] [Home] [Next entry: "Can't Think"]

Immigration Tests

Two months ago the UK citizenship tests were launched for prospective British citizens. It mainly asks questions about British laws and British customs (and requires a sufficient knowledge of English). I'm not planning to become a naturalised British citizen yet (and don't know anything about the legal requirements for dog owners, but then I have no intention of ever owning a dog and don't know about the requirements in my native Germany either). But should I decide to take the step I wouldn't mind taking the test same as other applicants. I think requiring a sufficient knowledge of the country and language from potential citizens isn't asking too much. What worries me though is when certain religions are singled out as is currently happening in Germany:

I haven't found much about it in English yet, I first found out about in a posting by Cem Basman at vowe dot net. In Baden-Württemberg in south-west Germany Muslim applicants for German citizenship will have to go through an interview where the immigration officers will ask questions like You will have heard of the attacks of Sep 11 in New York and Mar 11 in Madrid. Were the perpetrators terrorists or freedom fighters in your eyes? Explain your answer. or Imagine your full age son comes to you and explains he's homosexual and would like to live together with another man. How do you react? If you understand German, here's the full set of questions. Some of the questions I believe fairly vague and could quite possibly lead to the 'wrong' answer by a lot of non-Muslims.

The only information I've found in English so far appeared in what seems to me right wing publications and were written by Daniel Pipes: Two Germans vs. Islamism (I first found them in Human Events Online - The National Conservative Weekly as well as FrontPage Magazine). I don't agree with the way they portrait the topic, but if you don't understand German it gives you a little bit of further information.

Anyway, as mentioned I don't have a problem with citizenship tests as such, I also think it's perfectly reasonable to expect from immigrants to obey local laws and customs (not to forget to speak the language). What worries me is when specific religions or groups (in this case Muslims) are singled out. I believe this will create further tensions and will penalise people simply because of their religion or ethnicity. Some people argue that certain religions or people from certain countries are more prone to terrorism and therefore pose a higher risk. I don't buy that. Even if that was the case, I don't like the idea of singleing out a specific religion.

Other religions or beliefs (Sikhs, Christians, anti-abortion activists, animal rights extremists, you name it you'll find it) can be as dangerous or destructive to society as Muslims. All of them are potential immigrants. All of them would 'fail' at least one of the questions in the interview. So why are Muslims singled out?

End of entry

Entry trivia

When writing this entry the weather was: cloudy
When writing this entry I was listening to: BBC 6 Music
I'm currently reading/have just finished reading this book/publication: none
I recently visited this website/-page: Google News
The last drink I had was/is: milk

End of entry trivia

Advertising section

End of advertising section

Spread the word:

Do you like this weblog? Do you think others might be interested in it? Then please tell a friend! Thank you.