My comments on Bigotry in Europe

A reader of my piece on Combating bigotry in Europe was offended. Here is my response to him:

Nikos is critical of the comment:  "They like the Indian masala and Bangladeshi curry, but not the people that liven up their God-awful cuisine with some actual flavor." He says that 'This is one of the many astounding, biased and fallacious statements' made by the author. Really? He is wrong on all those counts.

Who could deny the influence of spice in colonizing south and south-east Asia? Before discovery of those spices, which make the food tasty, most European cuisines were not that tasty. Many European and American scholars would not find any fault with the author's remark here; many have coined similar statements.


In the American context, we could well replace the Bangladeshi cook in a British restaurant with a Mexican American who works in the gardens, picks up the vegetables and fruits from the gardens or works as a maid in the house, or as a gardener. If we want to benefit from such services - good and cheap - we cannot complain about their living in our midst. That is the point which Nikos probably failed to comprehend.

Our society is becoming dependent on each other and having a biased attitude on a fellow human being who for reasons unique to his/her survival mechanism ends up in our doors cannot be shunned away to die.

In some previous articles the author (e.g., click here) has dealt a few times about crimes of the fanatic groups emanating from the Muslim world. So, Nikos is either not reading regularly such articles or has difficulty comprehending.

What I have pointed out  is that most of the failures of the nation states in the Muslim world owe their existence to not-so-benign activities of their former colonial masters. That is a fact, and not a fiction.

BTW: Nikos is also ignorant about the countries hosting refugees and assumes that Europe has taken or taking the bulk of them. No, it has not. Bulk of the refugees, according to Time magazine, are actually living in the Muslim world. Turkey has taken 1.9 million refugees, Lebanon 1.1 million, Jordan 629,000, Egypt 132,000, and North Africa minus Egypt 24,000. In contrast, thus far, Germany, which is the most generous host amongst the European countries w.r.t. treatment of  the refugees, has taken 99,000.

Nikos needs to do his studies right before making a fool of himself.