Breaking Polarization: Start with Acknowledgment
In a righteous realm, all men confess wherein they hath erred, and mend their way.
I would fain show thee some splendors first, before guiding thee into a world most absurd.
The danger of one-sided narratives
A multicultural society is unity in a shared identity.
Not separation, discrimination, and polarization.
In multicultural and liberal countries, where a diverse composition has been democratically chosen - such as Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the US, Germany, and the UK - every effort should be made to prevent polarization.
If diversity and inclusion are at the core of national identity, one must guard against the emergence of segregated worlds.
However, in current practice, a reverse inequality threatens to arise, where the original inhabitants increasingly feel marginalized.
Polarization arises when remembrance or attention to suffering is one-sided.
For example, if only the slavery of Africans is emphasized while the suffering of other groups is completely ignored, some people feel excluded or unrecognized. This can lead to resentment and an "us versus them" mentality.
In reality, slavery is a worldwide historical phenomenon: almost all peoples have been enslaved or have themselves held slaves—ranging from Europeans to Africans, Asians, and Arabs.
A fair and balanced approach helps to prevent division.
Freedom of speech under pressure
Racism is racism – period. Whether it is directed against people with black, white, brown, or any other skin color, it remains a denial of human dignity. No one deserves to be collectively humiliated, excluded, or hated based on their origin.
Yet we see that the fight against racism is not always free from new forms of exclusion. When statements like "I don't like white men. I want them to be a lost species in a hundred years" (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown) or "we need to abolish the white race" (Noel Ignatiev) are hardly criticized, while every racist remark directed at people of color rightly meets fierce resistance, a dangerous double standard arises.
For example, actress Jane Fonda stated that "white people are responsible for the climate crisis" – a statement that unjustly reduces the complex, worldwide history of exploitation and ecological damage to a single race, while nearly every civilization in history has been guilty of oppression and slavery.
Also, Tim Wise, an anti-racist speaker, claimed that white people can never be victims of racism in principle. But racism without power is not an innocent variant – it remains racism.
Such tendencies have societal consequences. In Rotherham, England, between 1997 and 2013, about 1,400 children were victims of systematic sexual abuse by so-called 'grooming gangs,' predominantly made up of men of Pakistani descent. Police and youth care ignored reports, partly out of fear of being labeled racist or Islamophobic. In some cases, victims were even seen as "choosing prostitution." Official reports confirm that institutional fear of stigma led to the neglect of fundamental human rights.
Those who want to fight injustice must do so consistently. When fighting one injustice leads to ignoring or even causing another injustice, we lose our credibility – and ultimately our moral compass.
No work for Joris, but work for Sadiqa
Joris van Os, a white Dutch man, was unable to get his literary work published despite its quality. Therefore, he created a pseudonym and identity as a young Moroccan-Dutch woman, Sadiqa Almakhadie. Under that name, he suddenly received much praise, publications, and a literary award. When he revealed his true identity, the publisher initially showed understanding, but later controversy arose. An intern accused his work of cultural appropriation, and the publishing house ultimately decided not to release the book due to 'misleading' the publishers.
Van Os wanted to demonstrate how identity and marketing in the literary world can sometimes be more important than the work itself, and that publishers often prefer to 'market' white men.
He advocates for more openness and clarity about how publishers deal with identity. Read the full article here.
Christian identity suddenly offensive
In 2017, Lidl removed images of church crucifixes from packaging in Italy and Belgium. After protests, including a complaint from the mayor of Dolceacqua, the images were replaced with versions where the crucifixes were visible again.
No room for one's own heritage
Censorship and alteration of classic literature
In March 2021, controversy arose in the Netherlands and Belgium over a new translation of Dante's The Divine Comedy, in which the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad was omitted from the passage about hell (Inferno). The translator explained that this was done to "avoid unnecessary offense" and to make the book more accessible to a wider audience. However, popes and homosexuals were still depicted in hell.
29-5-2025 Anneline Kriel-Bacon reflects on the ongoing brutal murders of farmers in South Africa, six years after the violence began, and questions the absence of action from President Ramaphosa and other leaders. She recounts a powerful visit to the White Cross Monument near Polokwane, where thousands of white crosses memorialize farmers and their families who were brutally killed. The ceremony was deeply emotional, with families planting crosses for their lost loved ones and mourning openly. Kriel-Bacon calls for farm murders to be treated as serious crimes and urges the government to stop politicians who incite violence against farmers and farm workers. Read her article and see the photos here.
Safety, extremism, and the danger of looking away
"There will come a day when we will see many more radicals, extremists, and terrorists coming from Europe, due to a lack of decisiveness, trying to be politically correct, or assuming that they know the Middle East, Islam, and 'the others' better than we do. And I'm sorry, but that is pure ignorance." — from the speech of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UAE) during the Tweeps Forum in 2019.
The Tweeps Forum is an international, interactive event launched in 2013 and held in Riyadh. It is organized by the MiSK Foundation of Mohammed bin Salman. It serves as a platform where youth and leaders worldwide come together to discuss how social media can effectively contribute to society, peace, and security. Themes include combating extremism, counter-terrorism, and the role of social media in sharing meaningful ideas.
Omitted from this visual overview are attacks such as the Manchester Arena bombing (2017), the Bataclan and Paris attacks (2015), the Brussels Zaventem and metro attacks (2016), the Berlin Christmas market attack (2016), the Nice truck attack (2016), the London Bridge and Borough Market attack (2017), the Stockholm truck attack (2017), the Vienna attack (2020), the Utrecht station attack (2019), and more.
Let us also not forget the French history teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in October 2020, and the murder of Theo van Gogh (2004).
Or the 85-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel, who was beheaded during a Mass in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in 2016 by two Islamic terrorists.
How do we address this issue? Certainly not by denying its existence and immediately labeling those who point it out as Nazis. If anything is fascist, it is silencing dissenting voices. Think of Pim Fortuyn, who was demonized for years and was ultimately murdered in 2002 by a left-wing activist. Or Wil Schuurman, the wife of Janmaat, who was left permanently disabled in an attack by left-wing activists and still uses a wheelchair. To this day, the perpetrators show little to no remorse. These are painful examples of how political polarization and hatred lead to violence and injustice — something we must never ignore.
What can we learn from the United Arab Emirates?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has traditionally taken a very different approach to refugee reception than many Western countries. Unlike some European countries, such as Germany or Sweden, the UAE has not taken in large numbers of refugees through official refugee programs or asylum systems. However, the UAE provides significant humanitarian aid to refugees in the region. It has relatively strict immigration and residency permit rules, making it difficult for refugees to be admitted. The number of attacks in the UAE is relatively rare. Recognizing a problem is the first step towards a solution.
Victims are turned into perpetrators
Silence surrounding Israel and Zionism
When singer Douwe Bob refused to perform at a venue where Zionist expressions were present, he was not judged for his music, but for his political restraint. The criticism did not come from a foreign government, but from his own audience.
In the public debate, anti-Zionism is often automatically equated with antisemitism. But this is a narrowing that is not only incorrect but also dangerous. It makes legitimate criticism of policy or ideology impossible and places people in a moral trap: remain silent or be stigmatized.
Let it be clear: every people has the right to security and a place under the sun – including the Jewish people. But that right must not exclude anyone from criticism of an ideology or policies that affect others. Those who stand for equal rights must also dare to point out double standards where they occur.
Dr. Norman Finkelstein on the Israel-Hamas War: Finkelstein — himself Jewish and son of Holocaust survivors — explains how Zionism as a political ideology differs from Judaism as a religion or identity. In Genocide in Israel and Palestine he discusses how accusations of antisemitism are sometimes used to neutralize criticism of Israeli policy. In On Zionism, Imperialism, and the West Finkelstein argues that confusing anti-Zionism with antisemitism is not only unfair but undermines freedom of speech.
In every war, truth is the first casualty - and therefore the first thing that must be investigated. Because apparently, people in Gaza are still enjoying their meals.