Germany has finally determined that she is at the breaking point with the massive influx of war refugees, and has stopped all trains coming from Austria bearing thousands of immigrants. Germany even suspended the open-borders policy of the Schengen Agreement, which normally allows travel between nations without passport checks.

The most heavily-burdened city in Germany is Munich, which took in over 10,000 refugees just on Saturday alone. “We no longer know what to do with refugees,” said mayor Dieter Reiter, faced with the realization that many of the new arrivals would have to sleep outdoors.

https://youtu.be/1jP6iaCfftI

Meanwhile, in the capitals of Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, thousands of Europeans protested the massive influx of refugees, concerned that “Islam will be the death of Europe.”

From the looks of this map, it certainly appears to be an invasion of people from Muslim nations.

But — surprise of surprises — journalists in Arabic nations are taking notice and shaming leaders of the Arabic world.

One Saudi journalist, referring to the whole of the Arab-speaking world, declared, “We are a nauseating nation.” He further excoriated the culture “that kills people for their opinions or affiliation. Compare [this] to the parallel image: in the central train station in Munich, dozens of German citizens gather to welcome the first train arriving from Budapest carrying hundreds of immigrants…”

An Iraqi journalist wrote:

“The lofty [value of] human sentiment is rooted in cultured societies from Japan to the US. In Europe and other civilized countries a sharp sense of humanity is inculcated from early childhood…

“We too could be like them and our countries could be like their countries, which do not persecute the citizens and do open their arms to the victims of natural and political disasters. Yes, we could be like them if we thoroughly examined our barbaric political regime, our backwards social order, our obsolete curricula, our media that operates without professional norms, and our religious establishment that interprets the texts in a barbaric fashion, inciting to hatred and to abuse of the other, even members of the Islamic faith! This situation clearly mandates a velvet revolution that the educated [sector] must launch.”

And an Egyptian writer asked:

“Does the picture of the boy who drowned represent the death certificate of this nation, which died recently and is [now only] awaiting a burial permit?…

“In the face of the boy who drowned I saw the face of an entire nation cast out [on the beach] like a small dead fish that exudes a stench of death, but also additional foul smells of oil, shame, impotence, treachery, conspiracy and collusion…”

To be fair, two Arabic nations have taken in war refugees: Jordan and Lebanon. Jordan has accepted hundreds of thousands, and Lebanon has over 1 million refugees — about one-third of its population consists of refugees. But Jordan and Lebanon are not wealthy nations, and the oil-rich Gulf states continue to refuse. One Kuwaiti leader explained that, “At the end of the day, you cannot accept other people, who come from a different atmosphere, from a different place… These are people who suffer from psychological problems, from trauma, and you [cannot] place them in [Gulf] societies just like that.” He added, “Kuwait and the Gulf countries are expensive, and are not suitable for refugees.”

So why are European nations willing to accept very foreign refugees, while the nations to which the refugees are most similar barring them from entry?

The answer lies in the culture, and the bedrock of European culture is Christianity, even though much of modern Europe is unchurched. The Bible, and in particular the New Testament, is strewn with precepts for Christians to give of their own hearts to those who are less fortunate. As Jesus said in Mark 12:31: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Islam, which is the theocratic rule for Muslim nations, boasts of charity of a different sort. Called zakat, the giving of alms to the poor and needy is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. However, it is not voluntary, but a tax. As an Islamic website reads, “It is obligatory upon every adult Muslim of sound mind and means. The individual must own a specific amount of wealth or savings (after living costs, expenses etc). This is referred to as Nisaab and is the threshold at which Zakat becomes payable. The amount of Zakat to be paid is 2.5% of Nisaab.”

It’s no surprise, then, that the Gulf state nations have refused to take in their Muslim brethren. How detestable. In the words of an English-speaking paper in Qatar, the Gulf Times, “Tragically, the cash-rich Gulf countries have not yet issued a collective statement on the crisis – much less come up with a strategy to help the migrants who are overwhelmingly Muslim . . . the silence is deafening.”