More Immigrants? Sure, But Not In My Backyard
BARCELONA, Spain – As Europe continues to contend with the flood of refugees from the Middle East, this reporter took to the streets of Barcelona to gauge local response to a proposal by the city’s activist mayor for volunteers to house the incoming migrants.
The vast majority of the 22 Barcelona residents interviewed expressed deep sympathy for the refugees and strongly supported the Spanish government’s decision to take in nearly 20,000 of those fleeing Syria.
Most residents queried also supported the mayor’s aid plan. Yet when asked if they would personally house the refugees, every Barcelona resident interviewed responded in the negative.
Last week, Spain agreed to accept as many refugees as proposed by the European Commission, with the number now set at more than 19,000 to be resettled in Spain.
In August, Barcelona’s new mayor, Ada Colau, backed by the left-wing Podemos party, partnered with the city of Madrid to back a campaign that has created a registrar of households ready to donate material goods to the refugees while seeking volunteers to provide housing and shelter for a period of time.
Colau’s office says it received more than 1,200 offers from residents to provide everything from food to housing to language lessons. Barcelona city hall said it is working to coordinate with the “many Barcelona families” that have “offered to receive refugees.”
Yet the municipality refused to provide a breakdown of the exact number of residents who offered to open up their homes to the incoming immigrants and would not even give a rough estimate when asked by phone and e-mail.
London May Soon Have A Muslim Mayor
This reporter then deployed to London, a city where Muhammad was the most popular name given to newborn baby boys last year and which could soon elect its first Muslim mayor.
On Friday, the UK’s main opposition Labour Party selected Sadiq Khan, a former government minister and a Muslim of Pakistani descent, as its London mayoral candidate. Khan has mixed his Muslim faith with progressive politics, supporting same-sex marriage while at the same time personally keeping to the Islamic ban on alcohol.
Missing from much of the media coverage of Khan’s mayoral candidacy is the fact that he served as chairman of the socialist Fabian Society and currently sits on the radical group’s executive committee.
The Fabian Society says it seeks to help advance what it regards as an evolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism through gradualist democratic efforts instead of violent revolution. The British Labour Party was founded by Fabian socialists, and the Fabian Society remains one of 15 socialist societies affiliated with the Labour Party.
In 2008, Khan penned an 86-page pamphlet for the Fabian Society titled “Fairness Not Favours: How to Reconnect with British Muslims.”
In his socialist treatise, Khan makes the case for British Muslims to be the recipients of more public welfare programs. He advocates increases in universal measures such as child benefits and a rise in the national minimum wage as ways to aid the British Muslim community.
The politician calls for increased public support for large families, noting that the average British household is approximately 2.31 people, while Muslim households are double or even triple that.
Khan’s Fabian Society paper urges the Labour Party to take advantage of British Muslims as a voting bloc, recommending the establishment of what he dubs “Operation Muslim Vote” as a “route into community empowerment which takes into account a history of disaffection and mistrust in the democratic process.”
When it comes to education and Islam, Khan outlines a plan for the country’s Teacher Training Agency to revise and update its teacher training programs “to provide more robust training that explores issues of faith and identity and the issues of community cohesion more widely.” Khan envisions a symbiotic relationship between mosques and the British school system, arguing that imams “should help teachers.”