Yeah, A Little Humor Might Help

"It would do all religions good if you could laugh at them. That would be a step forward. "

-- Sylvia Lohrmann, Green Party, Discussion on Islam on Hard But Fair Show

Monday evenings on ARD (Channel One), there's always a decent political chat show that comes up.  Last night was a talk on Islam in Germany.  The spectrum was full.....political folks, journalists, and Islam enthusiasts.  As the moderator went around the table for last comments.....Sylvia's comment carried a ton of weight upon it.  Simple words....an idea worth thinking about.

I essentially caught the second-half of the show and have to admit that they hammered away at Muslim issue in Germany.  If you didn't know much.....you got a five-star dose of information and positions.

Essentially, you have four major groups in Germany.  You have a fair sized crowd that is fearful of where a larger Islamic presence is going to lead onto.  This group isn't necessarily anti-Islam but they look at the threats made and the hostilities that brew up, and the lack of integration....and they can't help be be frustrated.

On the opposite side of the spectrum are the folks who desire an open atmosphere and are truly open to various religions and cultures.  They are shocked by violence and threats, but come right back to some open-arms mentality.  These are people who watch a lot of Channel One....get hyped with their enthusiasm, and retreat when reality occurs of a harsh nature.....but then return for more.  Wild apes could take over Bavaria, and they'd get hyped up in fear, then accept the wild apes eventually as Channel One told them it was OK.

Somewhere in the middle.....you have the third group which is under the belief that Islam will change under the German umbrella.  There's 500 years of German enthusiasm to lose your religion and just be happy.  This group thinks the harsh reality of Germany (high taxation, high standard of life, social climate, significant cost of living, and remarkable educational opportunities) will lead people to change.

The fourth group?  These are people who think that Germans will change, and it'll be a multicultural state with dozens of religions and cultures all wonderfully blended into some hybrid German state in the future.  If you were looking for the most unrealistic group of the four.....this would be it.  I doubt if this group makes up more than two percent of the German population, but they tend to be the intellectual crowd, and get face time on Channel One a good bit.

I have to admit.....the quote by the Green representative on the panel last night was a four-star quote.  When you look at the Christian side and the amount of humor and sarcasm dumped on the Catholic Church.....it offers some minor relief to serious discussions on the Christianity.  Trying to offer humor on Islam?  You'd get a death threat or have thousands of people on your back because of the insult.  Sylvia Lohrmann is right.....but it'll never happen.