THE DESPOTISM OF EUROPEAN TOLERANCE

On the New Year's Eve, the German city of Cologne saw mass attacks by immigrants on German citizens celebrating the New Year. Hundreds of men - from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Africa, who have documents requesting asylum, gathered outside the train station and on the forecourt of the central cathedral. Refugees blew up firecrackers, robbed passers-by, attacked women and shouted insults at them. New Year attacks also occurred in other German cities - in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Munich, etc. The media give different data on complaints to the police - from 160 to more than 600 with most of them related to sexual harassment. German Minister of Justice Heiko Maas told Bild newspaper that there was no doubt that all attacks were planned and coordinated.

The local police, which first reported a quiet New Year's Eve, and the local media, which reported the attacks a few days later, apparently, only after outrage started to heat up on social networks, tried to conceal the incident for some time. Victims and witnesses noted that on the ill-fated night there were not enough police on the streets. The police also asked not to disclose instances of attacks.

By the way, it turned out that such requests come not only from the German police. A few days after the beginning of the media hype about the Cologne events, the Swedish prime minister accused the police of his country of betraying young women because over the last two years the law enforcers have ignored reports of sexual harassment, which, for example, took place en masse at the Stockholm festival in 2014 and 2015.

Several human rights activists and organizations involved in assistance to refugees asked for the same. In a refugee camp for North Africans in the Italian town of Ventimiglia, a No Borders activist was brutally raped, but her colleagues advised her not to go to the police so as not to stoke xenophobic sentiments. In addition to the fear of provoking xenophobic attacks, the police also noted difficulties in the investigation, since all immigrants look alike and there is no database on them. It turned out that the media is also not too eager to talk about the dozens of cases of alleged rape by immigrants not only in Germany but also in France, Italy, Austria and the Scandinavian countries.

However, the biggest and ugliest incident took place in Cologne, one of the oldest cities in all of Europe and Germany. Germany received the largest number of immigrants last year - according to various sources, 1-1.5m people. The immigration policy of Berlin is formed under the influence of ideas of Chancellor Angela Merkel who professes the philosophy of "open doors" and believes that incomers from other countries are good for the rich, stable and strong Germany. The Chancellor is convinced that in this way the country is not only doing a good thing, protecting human rights, but also getting extra manpower and incentives for development. As a result, Germany in fact refused immigration control on its own borders and strongly criticized its EU neighbours who do not share Merkel's ideas and see the refugees as a threat. Also recently, the German ARD TV channel accused Turkey of "violating international law" because it systematically sends refugees back into war-torn Syria.

Indeed, it is not clear why Merkel, who herself proclaimed the "failure of multiculturalism" in Europe a few years ago, suddenly and so recklessly decided to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees. It was done recklessly because now she herself admits that the European authorities do not have the capacity to keep the situation under control. Cancelling a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos on 20-23 January, which she has always attended, Merkel changed her mind and offered to simplify the procedure for the deportation of immigrants who have committed a crime. The interior minister of Saarland, Klaus Bouillon, also spoke out in favour of restricting the freedom of movement for immigrants on the territory of Germany. German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel considers it necessary to instruct refugees in the future where specifically they should reside in Germany.

But what did the German politicians think about before the events in Cologne? Why did the German authorities, which carefully guard any anti-globalization demonstration and numerous gatherings of football fans, miss the usual New Year celebrations?

How is Germany going to deal with the fact that most of the refugees, according to the International Organization for Migration, are young men? After all, most of the studies show that in societies where there is a pronounced imbalance between the sexes, there is a high percentage of rape and sexual harassment. Even if immigrants do not have any criminal or terrorist past (and most of them most likely do not have any), staying in an overcrowded refugee camp without money, without entertainment and without the opposite sex, but with an excess of free time will clearly led to a bad end. "Many young Syrians, Afghans and Moroccans will become diligent workers and honest taxpayers. However, other refugees, despite the ongoing friendly attitude, will consider the police contained from above to be weaklings, women - permitted game, and democrats - imbeciles. They will become members of clans and organized gangs, and increase the number of recruited Islamists," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung predicts. Moreover, the problem of immigrants is not new to Europe. Immigrant neighbourhoods where the police try not to turn up have long existed in some European cities, while Paris has experienced real immigrant riots.

And finally, why was Berlin not worried that thousands of people, many of whom, it turns out, were not thoroughly checked by anyone are coming to Germany? The investigation into the attack on a police station in Paris revealed shocking facts: a terrorist who was shot was living in Germany in one of the centres for asylum seekers, was arrested for trafficking in weapons and drugs and illegally lived in France for five years, identifying himself as a Tunisian, Moroccan or Georgian. That is to say if a citizen of Russia, Ukraine or Azerbaijan, for example, decides to move to Germany, they will check his lineage to the tenth generation, as well as his physical, mental and financial condition, but here a huge number of people were given the green light at once.

What's the difference? The difference is the status - the immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East are officially referred to as refugees. In any democratic state, a refugee is provided with protection, assistance, future family reunification, and it is pretty hard to deport him. The court will investigate whether the fugitive will be in danger at home, and if yes, then even if the refugee is dangerous, it is impossible to send him back in any case. That is what German Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economy and Energy Sigmar Gabriel thinks: "We cannot send a man who is stealing here back home where the executioner is waiting for him."

Pope Francis said that it is necessary to observe a balance between the protection of your own citizens and aid to immigrants. That is to say immigrants cannot be forced to give up their language, traditions, religion, cultural and moral norms. Of course, this in turn means that the immigrants themselves will respect the traditions and values of Germany, as well as human rights, which, at least, involves the recognition of religious and gender equality.

It's all very nice in theory, but, as it turned out, it's almost unattainable in practice. Apologists of multiculturalism, of whom there are many in senior positions in the EU, do not know the answer to the question of what to do if, for example, the traditions and cultural norms of immigrants deny equality between men and women. As a result of this contradiction, it turns out that people have to choose: either you "compel/reject/deport" immigrants, or gradually change your own values and attitudes. Mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker, it seems, preferred the second way and advised women to avoid provoking possible sexual harassment, which apparently involves restrictions on dress and movement. Whether German women will accept it in the name of multiculturalist values remains an open question. In front of our eyes, the Western world's worship of the ideals of tolerance and individualism causes a paradoxical situation where the desire not to violate the rights of some minorities (ethnic, religious, sexual, etc.) leads to the despotism of political correctness where the rights of the majority are already beginning to seriously suffer.

On the other hand, you cannot blame everything on different cultural and moral values. Many people have noticed that in the resorts of Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and other North African and Middle Eastern countries, no one has ever touched European women, who sometimes sunbathe topless, visit nightclubs or come to the cafe in the swimsuit. And suddenly, at home, in the heart of Europe, something incredible happens. After all, the attacks in Cologne took place not on the back streets under the cover of the night, but openly, in a crowded square and in the presence of local German men. It seemed that this madness of the crowd was only possible on some Tahrir Square in Cairo overwhelmed by the "Arab spring", but not in Europe. In Cairo, when criminals raped women right on the square, they took advantage of their large number and chaos in the government and law enforcement agencies. But we cannot say the same about Cologne. So what's the deal? It seems that the answer to this question is also hanging in the air.

The lack of a harsh and proportional response to the crimes (regardless of the "refugee" status) by the authorities and the police generates bursts of nationalism and xenophobia in society. That is to say what is happening is exactly what the authorities are so afraid of and try to avoid by hushing the problem up. The head of European diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, wisely noted that "violence against European women existed before the mass influx of immigrants into Europe" and that "there are good and bad people regardless of their nationality or origin". The trouble is that the crowd - whether it is immigrants or neo-Nazis - has no wisdom. Therefore, the emergence of nationalist slogans, xenophobic groups and skinhead self-defence units should not surprise anyone. And the more the state puts pressure on its own "Nazis" instead of controlling the immigration problem, the more tensions will increase in society. The protest against immigrants in Leipzig, organized by the local branch of PEGIDA attacked six people from Pakistan in Cologne, wounding two of them, and later they wounded a Syrian man. Perhaps absolutely innocent people who did not intend to harass or hurt anyone suffered. The popularity of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany is growing. The Cologne police reported a significant increase in the number of requests for licences for air weapons. And deviating from the subject, as they say, Hitler's creation "Mein Kampf" was reprinted in Germany for the first time since the defeat of the Third Reich. Against this background, the prophecy of German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment Gerd Muller that in the coming years Germany and Europe as a whole will be flooded by 8m to 10m refugees sounds depressing.