One Pagan's Perspective on the European Migration Crisis

Dear Readers,

This will be my first blog post composed in the Czech Republic, where I am living for the fall, teaching at Masaryk University in the charming Moravian capital city of Brno. Even as I enjoy strolling the picturesque, Old European streets, sampling Czech beer and cuisine and falling in love with a very stylish cafe in Dominikánské náměstí called Skøg Urban Hub, where I now sit writing this, I am aware of gathering storm clouds looming over not only the Czech Republic but all of Europe. This is the migration crisis occasioned by the flight of tens, soon to be hundreds, of thousands of refugees seeking to escape the very real threats of devastation and death that they face in war-torn, economically and socially collapsing countries of the Middle East and North Africa, particularly but not only Syria. The four-year old Syrian civil war that grew out of Arab Spring protests and then spawned the violent, fanatical ISIS movement has now reached a stage where more and more people are simply giving up and leaving. Similarly unbearable situations are drawing people out of North Africa, Yemen and as far east as Afghanistan.

As these desperate masses stream into Europe, hoping for a better life in more prosperous and stable countries like Germany and Sweden, they encounter varying responses from the governments and peoples of Europe. Some Europeans are moved by empathy and compassion for these traumatized refugees, and are bringing them donations of food, water and clothing, while others resent the arrival of foreigners with different customs and complexions, and fear that their societies will be overwhelmed by these ethnic and religious Others. Leaders like the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán are playing to this sentiment with actions like erecting barbed-wire fences, herding migrants into barely livable camps, some into the main Budapest train station, encouraging or at the very least not denouncing harsh police and border guard treatment of migrants including beatings and tear gas dispersal and so on. Still more extreme right-wing anti-immigrant groups are seeking to intimidate and terrorize these migrants by various methods from chanting anti-foreigner slogans outside refugee camps to firebombing places of asylum. The leaders of Germany and Sweden have distinguished themselves as standard-bearers for conscience and compassion by standing by their open-door policies toward refugees and migrants, while other countries and governments, not only Hungary but others as well even supposedly ultra-progressive Denmark, have taken delight in turning a cold, hard shoulder toward the new arrivals.

In a nutshell, Europe as a whole is split down the middle about whether to welcome and offer assistance to the incoming foreigners, or to resist their movement into their lands and seek to expel them by any means necessary.

As an American Pagan who has spent a fair amount of time researching European Pagan groups, I would expect that European Pagans share the same range of reactions to this migration crisis as do other Europeans. It is the same in the USA where the general population as well as the much smaller but still quite diverse Pagan population display a range of attitudes about incoming immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere. In the following, I will attempt to make a case for why European Pagans should welcome the migrants, not oppose or vilify them. I am sure that some, perhaps many European Pagans will disagree with what I have to say, but I believe I am standing on firm and principled ground, ground we can build on for the future.

First, a historical argument. Europe has a long history of receiving migrants from other regions, who added elements to each country's character and traditions without which each recipient society would have been poorer, economically, culturally, spiritually and otherwise. Without the migrations of the Anglo-Saxons (more specifically the Angles and the Saxons), there would be no England and no English language. Without the migrations of the Magyars from the Ural Mountains region into Central Europe, there would be no Hungary and no Hungarian language. Without Celts migrating from Central Europe to the British Isles, there would be nothing Celtic about Ireland, Wales or Scotland. Without Viking migrations, Ireland and Britain would not be what they are today, and Iceland would have neither Elves, nor sheep, nor people, and precious little Scandinavian mythology would have been written down and preserved, as most of this happened in medieval Iceland. Classical Greece and Rome were formed by migrants as well. That is to say, without a very long list of migrants and migrations that flowed into Europe at different points in time, Europe as we know it today would never have come into existence. To those who say, "we must protect our European traditions against foreign intrusion," I would answer with two points worth pondering: (1) European traditions were often formed by foreign intrusions, leading to this seemingly paradoxical, but historically supportable conclusion that (2) foreign intrusion is itself a very old European tradition.

But, some Pagans would say, these migrants today are different. They bring nothing positive, only an alternate form of Abrahamic monotheism that Pagans reject completely. But wait... might we be having this argument in a cafe over a couple of cappucinos? Ah, European coffeehouses, such a fine old tradition... but is coffee really European? It has been a popular beverage for many centuries, quite so, but it did not actually originate in Europe. The custom of drinking coffee and the social institution of the coffeehouse were creations of the Muslim world, transmitted to Europe via the Ottoman Empire. If you struggled as a child to learn mathematics, know that algebra was first created by Arabs. If you go to a hospital for surgery, be aware that the first hospitals were Muslim institutions, and that Arab-Muslim anatomy textbooks were a major part of European medical training up to the modern period. And take your foot off that Ottoman and stop watching TV lying on that sofa! And stop eating those kebabs and that hummus!

So, as these examples illustrate in a hopefully light-hearted way, Muslims and Arabs of the past contributed quite a lot to European civilization. Welcomed into Europe today, who knows what peoples from Syria and Yemen and Afghanistan and other such lands might contribute today that would eventually become well-loved "European traditions." The fear, of course, is that they will contribute Islamic militancy and terrorism. I would answer to that fear that how a people respond to a new social environment depends greatly on how they are received. That is to say, if xenophobic, right-wing Europeans do all that they can to make 21st century Muslim migrants feel unwelcome, distrusted, excluded,and even hated, then you can expect that some such immigrants may well be attracted to radical movements that offer them some measure of pride and dignity, even if in a suicidal, destructive form. On the other hand, if Muslims are sincerely welcomed and treated with respect for their traditions, beliefs and customs, and not shunted into ghettos devoid of economic and social opportunity, many will be able to adjust to life in Europe quite happily, as millions of Muslims have already done.

When non-Muslim Europeans engage in overheated fantasies about the supposed "menace" of Muslim immigration, they often fail to note that Many Muslims are already living in Europe so quietly and successfully that their presence often goes unnoticed, while the incidents of violence and terrorism perpetrated by Muslim-Europeans are unusual, sensational events committed by a very small percentage of European Muslims. If the same out-of-proportion standard of judgment were applied against violent incidents perpetrated by white Europeans, might not the argument be made that Europe is facing a "white menace" that requires urgent action, such as deporting all white Europeans to the Caucasus mountain region?

Let us not fail to note that similar arguments about the "Jewish menace" and the need to expel European Jews from Europe were once quite popular among non-Jewish Europeans, and that the application of this prejudiced viewpoint to political life led to one of the most shameful episodes in European history. Let us also keep in mind that the Roma (gypsies) were another target of persecution of the Nazis, and that, proportionately speaking, as many Roma as Jews died in the Holocaust. This is poignantly described in Brno's Museum of Romany Culture (http://www.rommuz.cz/en, the only Museum of Roma culture and history in all of Europe). Sadly for the Roma, their days of persecution are not yet over, but I will leave this topic for another day. It will suffice to say that the mass persecution of Jews and Roma did nothing to improve European life or preserve "European traditions and identity," but only led to untold suffering and everlasting shame. Shall the Muslim migrants be treated as were the Jews and Roma, or have we really learned nothing from Nazism and the Holocaust?

Apart from the basic humanitarian consideration of helping fellow human beings find safety and succor, there are other reasons too why Pagans should endeavor to receive these Muslim migrants kindly. Modern Paganism is only possible because of a general respect for the principle of diversity. Whatever can strengthen the rule of diversity in European--and other--societies will be good for Pagans and for the continuing development of the different forms of Paganism now arising or reviving in Europe; whatever weakens the rule of diversity will open the door to persecution and disadvantagement not only for Muslims--but also for Pagans among other religious "Others." It should sound alarm bells for European Pagans that some of the loudest voices opposing the current wave of Muslim migration are characterizing the situation as a defense of "Christian Europe" against the invasion of Muslims from the East, as if this were the 1683 Siege of Vienna all over again. See http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/09/11/world/europe/ap-eu-eastern-europe-migrants.html .

Some ethnically-oriented Pagans may initially feel they can happily whistle along with right-wing European nationalist leaders when they sing of protecting and upholding European ethnic heritage by blocking Muslim immigration, but they may start to find this cheerful political tune less joyful and melodious when they realize that right-wing leaders like our dear friend Mr. Orbán equate European heritage and identity with Christianity, that is, European = Christian, meaning there is "no space at the inn," to use a suitable Christian turn of phrase, for Pagans in a Europe so defined. As non-Christians, Pagans therefore have very practical, self-interested reasons to make common cause with Muslims in standing up for religious diversity in Europe, a diversity that embraces Christians, Jews, Muslims, AND Pagans (along with Buddhists and Hindus and Sufis and Krishnaites and Cthulu-followers and many others). When any non-Christian is threatened, Pagans are threatened too, and so by protecting the rights of Muslims to live in Europe and freely practice their religion, Pagans protect their own rights too.

Though these words are perhaps overused, and though I know I risk descending into cliché by quoting them, I do find the warning of the German Protestant minister Martin Niemöller very pertinent in this regard:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

Shall we update and adapt Herr Niemöller's message to suit our current situation?

"First they came for the terrorists, and I did not speak out--
because I am not a terrorist.

Then they came for the immigrants, and I did not speak out--
because I am not a immigrant.

Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out--
because I am not a Muslim.

Then they came for the cultists, and I did not speak out--
because I do not consider my religion a "cult."

Then they came for the Pagans--and there was no one left to speak for me."

Protect your religious rights. Defend religious freedom for all!

Make All Mankind Your Tribe

My joy and pride in observing the rise of the Occupy-99% movement continues to bring a smile to my face. For this unexpected ray of hope in a time of such darkness and despair I do give heartfelt thanks! It has been sometime since I commented on anything distinctly Pagan, as I have been preoccupied with the cruel, brain-dead forces dominating our political life in recent months, but today I want to again speak of things Pagan and attempt to suggest some links to the Occupy movement.

Something I have observed and reflected on with growing concern for many years is a tendency in certain forms of modern-day Paganism to not merely value and seek to revive and revision religious traditions of the pre-Christian past, but to also idealize the social forms and norms of those past times. I am very comfortable with the religious motivation, but quite uncomfortable with the social agenda. Specifically, there is the idea, detectable in some forms of Asatru-Heathenry but also elsewhere, that the best thing for Pagans today is to return, to whatever degree possible, to the kind of tribal society of the medieval past or earlier. This society is romanticized as more heroic and more honorable than that of today, but is also valued, implicitly if not explicitly, for its more narrowly circumscribed ethnic horizons: "the good old days when we could be with people of our own kind." This often ties in with a sense of ethnic or ethno-national identity: "the religion (and society) of the Germans, the Swedes, the Russians, the _____ "(fill in the blank with ethnic or national group identity of your choice.)

What concerns me about this retro-tribalism is how well it lends itself to racial and ethnic exclusiveness, and ultimately, racial animosity. I know a good number of Astruar and other Pagans who do not see themselves as racist, who bear no particular grudge against people of other racial or ethnic backgrounds, who may be kind and warm with people of such backgrounds, but who fail, in my view, to grasp that despite their own good hearts and good intentions, their concern with ethnic identity and the tribal life of times past has a dangerous potential to function as a building block for the most hateful forms of racism, including such ugly developments as Nazism and neo-Nazism.

I have had repeated arguments with people from Asatru and other groups about this, and this posting will undoubtedly generate a few more, but I stand my ground. Anyone who reads late nineteenth century or early twentieth century texts like Vilhelm Gronbech's "Culture of the Teutons" which recount, and often romanticize, the myths and folklore of the Northmen/the Germans/the Scandinavians should be aware that certain lines of ethno-nationalistic thinking contained in such texts ultimately fed into Nazi beliefs about the master race and Nordic superiority. The extreme hatred for Jews, Roma, Slavs and others that fueled the Nazi death machine was predicated upon a sense that people of Germanic descent were fundamentally different from these others, fundamentally superior, and fundamentally in need of "lebensraum" or living space that would be cleansed of these unwanted others.

I have studied Old Norse. I have enjoyed and been inspired by the closest thing to sacred texts for Norse-Germanic Pagan traditions, the Eddas and the Sagas of Iceland. I have spent substantial time in Iceland, in fact, as well as other parts of Northern Europe, all of which are very dear to me. I have no problem with anyone wanting to rework the old religious traditions alluded to in those texts. I have made my own experiments in this area. Thus far I am on the same page as many other enthusiasts for recreating Germanic Paganism.

So what is my problem? It is my acute awareness that in today's multicultural, postcolonial, post-Holocaust, post-Hiroshima society, our heritage can never just be that of some chosen or assumed mono-ethnic identity from the distant past. As much as we may love having ancestors from this or that part of Europe or any other region of the world, our heritage did not stop developing in the year 1200 or whatever convenient cut-off point one may want to use to distinguish the imagined world of his/her Pagan ancestors from the world we live in today. Our heritage as modern people also includes slavery, colonialism, genocide, mass hatred, mass killing, mass ecological destruction, and a mixing of peoples, traditions, races, identities that would have been unimaginable 800 or 1000 years ago. To idealize that past society, to yearn to again be in an ethnically defined, ethnically exclusionary tribe, is at best a kind of escapism from modern social complexity, at worst an implicit, even if unacknowledged and unintentional endorsement of the same kind of ethnic and racial separatism that drove the Nazis.

My problem is I don't want to be a Nazi, nor a neo-Nazi, nor a supporter of nor a participant in anything remotely related or conducive to such hateful ideologies. As a child of the 20th century now living in the 21st, I see it as my heritage and responsibility to seek a positive way forward in the ethnically mixed, socially diverse, globalized world I live in. Retreating into an imagined past of ethnic purity that ignores the current day strikes me as silly at best, repulsive at worst.

Do I deserve then to call myself a Pagan or participate in Paganism? I have pretty much parted ways with American Asatru, because I encountered great hostility and experienced precious little satisfaction in attempting to discuss the above issues. I still struggle with how to take inspiration from religious traditions of the past without falling into the potential racism of retro-tribal agendas. I believe the only solution is through dialogue with a wide variety of religious traditions, in keeping with the ethnically and religiously pluralistic character of our world today. We may prefer the gods, the poems, the folklore of this or that tradition from this or that part of the world, but let us never forget that the world has opened and mixed many times since those traditions were first developed. Let us celebrate whatever god or gods or goddesses we find most meaningful, but also strive to see the meaning others find in theirs. Perhaps in time we can develop shared ritual forms that celebrate more than one tradition, that reach across the ghostly barriers of tribal, ethnic and national identity and animosity to embrace common humanity. I do believe that this is what the highest spirituality of any and all traditions, Pagan or not, calls us to.

I am inspired on this account by the Occupy Wall Street movement, with its coming together of many people from different backgrounds to seek the common good. Perhaps in time the day will come to occupy Paganism with a similar spirit.

Modern-day Paganism or Neo-Paganism means working with traditions remaining from the past. It should not mean being limited by them. A realization of common humanity is something from contemporary human experience, something nicely highlighted by the Occupy protests and encampments, that should be factored into that reworking. I say, make all humanity your tribe, and celebrate the day you did this!