Islam is incompatible with Western Culture and Laws

Shalimar said:
My, Bee, what a challenge some of those experiences must have been for you and your family.
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It was a challenge at times Shalimar, from South Africa we transfered to Hong Kong and as I walked into the flat allocated to us, I felt as if a whole weight had fell from my shoulders, but the main thing in Hong Kong was, my children were much happier in the schools there.
 
Fur, nineteen thirty three? I am kind of impressed in a boggled sort of way. I have been to some very isolated places in Canuckistan--but so far nothing like you mention. I am struggling to imagine it. Not Mayberry North I take it?

Something frightening was that Bloomsburg is considered Big City by people of the surrounding way rural communities. Students used to tell me they went there on the weekends to have something to do. There was a main street, two coffee shops, a quickie mart, and maybe a good ten shops off of the highway. I suppose if you lived on a farm surrounded by cornfields and not much else...yep that was the city.

The staff of the college had their own private joke. Almost every instructor or office had either a poster or other image from the movie "Deliverance". Opie Taylor out on the front porch with that danged banjo.
 
Ameriscot said:
I guess the requirement to assimilate didn't apply when all of our ancestors invaded America slaughtering Native Americans, stealing their land, and dismissing their cultural practices.
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The Indians were unable to control immigration, we could learn a great deal from their experience. They wound up being the ones who assimilated. Before the Europeans came they did not have beasts of burden, wheels, nor many of the things they have now. They did not have an easy time.
 
I've had issues with assimiliating in foreign countries. Even though the UK is an English speaking nation, I had a problem with feeling like a foreigner especially when I spent most of my first 6 months in London. There were many more cultural differences and language differences that I simply wasn't aware of or prepared for. I settled in much better in Scotland. When I finally found Americans online, meeting up for lunches etc, I became truly assimilated as we discussed the differences - what was strange, what we loved, etc. After a few years I had no need to make friends with anyone simply because they were also American. But I still have several American friends that live or used to live in Scotland.

Uganda was tougher. I had never been in a tiny minority before and the centre of attention wherever I went. The culture was so totally different from anything I knew. I craved meeting up with the other volunteers, but after a while I felt very comfortable with Ugandans. I actually enjoyed feeling like a 'celebrity'.

So I can understand wanting to be with 'your own kind', but it wears off and you begin to enjoy all the differences.
 
Bee said:
Not about Muslims but about assimilation...when I lived in South Africa, I didn't assimilate as such........it was obvious the Afrikaans were still fighting the Boer War with the English so we didn't feel welcomed by them and so it was easier to stick with either other English immigrants or English speaking South Africans.

When my son and his friends came home on the train from school and the boys from the Afrikaans speaking school got onto the same train they would put the English speaking boys through hell.

At a pigeon club social do I was at one night, my drink was spiked by a club member who's father was in the SS and had escaped to South Africa after that I was very careful who I got into conversation with.

From my own experience I can understand the Muslims not always wanting to assimilate and would rather stick with their own.
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I visited South Africa in 2006. My stepdaugher married an Afrikaner and the wedding was held there. We noticed when shopping that when the clerks realized we didn't speak Afrikaans, they would suddenly become very friendly.

I felt fearful in many parts of SA because of the violent crime, the razor wire, armed security guards at homes, carjacking warning signs, etc etc.... I enjoyed the visit but would not want to live there.
 
I've often wondered how I would behave if I were to be transplanted to a foreign country, especially a non English speaking one.
I know would seek out my own kind - Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, Brits etc - just for the sake of having relaxed conversations.

If I was a young parent I would keep my children on a short leash because I would be fearful for them. Here I know what the hazards are but in a foreign culture we would be much more vulnerable to blundering into danger without even realising it.

When I see recent immigrants doing these things I do understand why they do it.
 
Warrigal said:
Bee, what kind of work was moving you around the world with a young family?

Where else did you live ?
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My ex husband worked in the construction industry, after South Africa and Hong Kong, we came back to England.
 
Ameriscot said:
I visited South Africa in 2006. My stepdaugher married an Afrikaner and the wedding was held there. We noticed when shopping that when the clerks realized we didn't speak Afrikaans, they would suddenly become very friendly.

I felt fearful in many parts of SA because of the violent crime, the razor wire, armed security guards at homes, carjacking warning signs, etc etc.... I enjoyed the visit but would not want to live there.
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The difference is Ameriscot, the Welsh, Scots and Irish were all very welcome by the Afrikaaners but not the English because of the Boer war...........At the time we lived there, when a child was at secondary school and taking exams if they didn't speak or write Afrikaans they failed in every subject no matter how good they were.

Re; your second sentence, you can understand why a weight lifted from my shoulders when I was in Hong Kong, this was 1982 or thereabouts.
 
Bee said:
The difference is Ameriscot, the Welsh, Scots and Irish were all very welcome by the Afrikaaners but not the English because of the Boer war...........At the time we lived there, when a child was at secondary school and taking exams if they didn't speak or write Afrikaans they failed in every subject no matter how good they were.

Re; your second sentence, you can understand why a weight lifted from my shoulders when I was in Hong Kong, this was 1982 or thereabouts.
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Yes I can understand easily why it would be a relief to get to Hong Kong.

As for SA the clerks would first speak to us in Afrikaans and we would just say English please. They would smile and be very friendly. They knew we were tourists so not the people that were racists and abusers.
 

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