Thilo Sarrazin and the Anti-Muslim Left

In September, America’s tech giants went before Congress to answer questions about censorship. Despite the fact that the silencing of right-wing voices on Twitter and Facebook is no longer a “conspiracy theory,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey faced very little grilling from Democrats or Republicans. The closest Mr. Dorsey came to a serious showdown was from an aggrieved Alex Jones, who this year was banned from almost every social media platform.

Nominally “conservative” politicians such as Marco Rubio refuse to see the threat that private companies pose to American liberties. All one has to do is watch the recently released video of the top brass at Google boasting that their company has the ability and the will to alter thought and voting patterns. The New York Times sat on this video for months, not reporting on the most startling details.

Americans are so conditioned to thinking about tyranny as coming only from the state that they are often blind to the reality that Silicon Valley, which has always been closely tied to the federal government, is currently the heavyweight champion of political and social oppression.

Things are much, much worse in Europe. On the Continent, where hate speech laws reign, dissident voices are easily silenced with threats of expensive lawsuits and jail time. Some public intellectuals, such as Germany’s Thilo Sarrazin, are facing a softer form of censorship as book publishers refuse to sell potentially “inflammatory” works. In Dr. Sarrazin’s case, the controversial author has taken publishing giant Random House to court for their refusal to publish an English version of his book, Hostile Takeover: How Islam Hampers Progress and Threatens Society. Court documents show that Dr. Sarrazin is suing the New York-based publisher for reneging on a contract that was signed in November 2016.

Despite the fact that the German and European press have routinely characterized Dr. Sarrazin as a hero to the nationalist and populist right, the 73-year-old ex-banker is a politician and member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). However, despite his allegiance to the SPD, which is part of Angela Merkel’s coalition and supports an immigration system similar to Canada’s, Dr. Sarrazin has been branded a bigot because he has dared to write harsh but honest things about Germany’s Muslim population.

In his 2010 book Germany Abolishes Itself (Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab), Dr. Sarrazin claims that Germany’s large Turkish population is not only refusing to assimilate, they are also “dumbing” down the German population because the public-school system has to cater to their generally lower IQs. German elites were quick to decry the book as heresy and blamed Dr. Sarrazin for unnecessarily dividing the country along ethnic and religious lines. German readers reacted differently to the book, and Germany Abolishes Itself quickly sold out of its initial 250,000 copies. Dr. Sarrazin said that the elites were not treating him fairly.

Dr. Sarrazin is still singing the same tune eight years after Germany Abolishes Itself. Germany’s tastemakers have widely denounced his latest book, Hostile Takeover. They’ve lambasted Dr. Sarrazin for failing to “fully understand” the complexities of Islam and the Koran. Dr. Sarrazin is not giving in to this criticism, and his court case against Random House may set a precedent for free speech in the publishing world.

In a recent interview for the German-language magazine Blick, Dr. Sarrazin defended his thesis in Hostile Takeover to a skeptical Swiss journalist. Dr. Sarrazin pointed out the statistical fact that, given current birth rates, Germany and much of Western Europe will be Muslim-majority in a few decades. Once a majority, Germany’s Muslims, in Dr. Sarrazin’s words, “can change the constitution and jurisdiction.” Thus, Germany’s democratic system could abolish the German nation-state.

Thilo Sarrazin presents his new book ”Hostile Takeover – How Islam hinders progress and threatens society.” (Credit Image: © Kay Nietfeld/DPA via ZUMA Press)

Dr. Sarrazin argues against further Muslim integration into Europe from a liberal-left perspective. Yes, Dr. Sarrazin has come out in (tepid) support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, but other than his opposition to Islam, his politics are consistently left-wing. In the interview published in Blick, Dr. Sarrazin champions Europe for its democratic, capitalist, and secular values. He claims that Christianity can potentially hinder European society, but he says this isn’t currently a threat because so many modern German Catholics and Protestants wear their religion lightly. He highlights the fact that Muslim nations such as Malaysia and Turkey, while economically advanced, are far from leaders in technology or innovation. If Germany becomes more Muslim, it will resemble Turkey and Malaysia more and more.

While Dr. Sarrazin vocally supports integration and assimilation, he says that one cannot simultaneously be a Muslim and a German citizen. “I am happy about everyone who integrates with us and adapts [sic] our values. Only then will he not be Muslim for much longer,” Dr. Sarrazin told Blick. Dr. Sarrazin and many like him say they agree with Canadian YouTuber Stefan Molyneux that Islam is not a religion, but a political system with a religious foundation. As such, Dr. Sarrazin argues for the complete halt of all Muslim immigration to Europe, for even nonviolent Muslims and those who support terrorism will invariably vote for policies that are antithetical to Western traditions and to Westerners themselves.

The socialist Dr. Sarrazin’s appeal to the populist right in Germany may be a sign of a growing red-brown coalition in Europe. Italy’s partnership between the right-wing League and the populist left of the Five Star Movement has already produced a muscular government willing to halt the migrant invasion. Robert Fico, the former Prime Minister of Slovakia and member of that country’s left-wing Direction – Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party, said in 2016 that Islam is not welcome in his country.

It is unfortunate that Anglophone readers have to enjoy Dr. Sarrazin’s book and ideas in samizdat form. In case you are not familiar with samizdat, they were self-published books written by and traded among dissidents during communism’s dark days. Back then, the West prided itself on its love of free speech and its willingness to engage with ugly or unpopular opinions.

But the Cold War is over, and the neo-communists have won. Left-wing book publishers, journalists, and social-media managers suppress speech and hide controversial ideas. Even though Dr. Sarrazin is technically a man of the Left, he has been sentenced to the crimethink gulag because he dares to publish what millions of Germans think about their Muslim neighbors.

Is what Dr. Sarrazin says really that controversial? After all, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Turks in Germany not to assimilate, and data collected over the years have proven that most Turks in Germany need no incentive to remain separate from German culture. We could debate about Dr. Sarrazin’s views on Islam, but the mainstream media in Europe are actively silencing all dissenters, smearing them as “racists” and “Nazis.” The average German citizen appears to have had enough of this elitist bullying. If it continues, expect more Thilo Sarrazins, but with less decorum.

Editor’s Note: Frank Ellis reviewed Thilo Sarrazin’s controversial book for American Renaissance when it was first released. Read it here.