East and West – Can They Ever Come Together?
Transcription of interview with Nicolai Sennels on May 28, 2012.
Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, Financial Planner & Investment Advisor
Nicolai Sennels is a Danish psychologist who has worked for many years in the criminal
world in Copenhagen.
He’s written a great deal about the work that he’s done dealing with both Muslim
and non-Muslim criminals in the Copenhagen prison system.
Douglas Goldstein, financial planner & investment advisor, interviewed Sennels on Arutz Sheva
Radio.
Douglas Goldstein: In the work that you’ve done where you’ve written a book about a
number of the differences between Muslim and non-Muslim offenders, can you give us a brief
account of some of your conclusions?
Nicolai Sennels: I have more than a hundred Muslims as clients and also more Danish clients
than that as a psychologist.
They are all in the same age group and have the same social backgrounds, but the only
major difference between the two groups is the religious background.
I found that there are four main differences between the two groups, and one is that while
Westerners are brought up to feel that anger is a negative feeling, most Muslims are brought
up to feel that anger is a way to show strength.
The second difference is the honor concept that Muslims are brought up with, which can
make them very insecure.
Thirdly, while we in the west are mainly brought up to have what is called an “inner locus
of control”, meaning that we feel that we decide our own lives, in the Muslim culture,
people are brought up to have a so-called “outer locus of control meaning that they
feel that their lives are mainly governed by outside factors.
Finally, Muslims are brought up to feel that there is a very big difference between Muslims
and non-Muslims and that Muslims are superior to non-Muslims.
These are the four main conclusions that I reached.
Douglas Goldstein: Have others reached similar conclusions?
Have there been other professionals like you that have looked at this?
Nicolai Sennels: There are a lot of studies, but not all of them have reached the media.
There are actually quite a lot.
One of the studies that did reach the media was a German study where several thousands
of young people were interviewed and the conclusion was that the more religious Muslims are, the
more aggressive they are.
There’s apparently a connection between getting into Islam, studying it, practicing
it and then developing a more aggressive behavior.
And that’s the same conclusion that I reached.
Douglas Goldstein: Do we find this in other immigrant populations that have come into
Europe?
Nicolai Sennels: We don’t really hear about them.
If you think about it, it can be difficult to integrate gypsies but it’s for different
reasons.
They’re much less aggressive, especially on the political level, than Muslims.
On the other hand, there’s much more Muslims in Europe than gypsies and that’s why we
should be more concerned about that.
Douglas Goldstein: From your study, your conclusions are that because of the specific points you’re
making related to anger, honor, and lack of tolerance for the host culture, you think
this has led to them having a greater instance of being incarcerated?
Nicolai Sennels: Yes, definitely.
If you look at the statistics, and it’s basically from working in the prisons and
talking with people, you will see again and again why Muslims are very over-populated
and over-represented in our prisons and that the victims are almost always non-Muslims.
The only cases that victims are also Muslims are if it’s in the connection with honor
violence or in rivaling gangs.
This is definitely because of the view that Muslims are taught to have about non-Muslims.
Douglas Goldstein: Is there a lot of gang violence or gangs in Denmark?
Nicolai Sennels: Right now, the latest count that the police are keeping an eye on
is 131 gangs in Denmark and only about a handful of these are not Muslim.
Douglas Goldstein: You’ve been living in Denmark your whole life and you’ve certainly
seen a number of changes.
Where do you think things are going?
If there’s a huge change in the way that culture acts, in the way that crime is taken
care of, how would that affect who want to invest over the long term in Europe?
Nicolai Sennels: I’m not an expert on the economy like you are, but it’s very clear
that the failed integration of Muslims in Europe and we have to see the amount.
There are millions of Muslims here in Europe now.
The problems with the integration of Muslims is definitely contributing to the worsening
economy in Europe, and also a related study in Denmark showed that with what we called
a non-Western immigrant which is almost always a Muslim, they cost what amounts to about
300,000 Euros during a lifetime.
That’s only counting expenses for social benefits, such as expenses for health, school,
police, prisons and so on.
Douglas Goldstein: Immigrants normally are not very wealthy and they do require a lot
of help from the state.
Isn’t that something normal with having immigrants?
Nicolai Sennels: Most immigrants do very well.
We have quite a few Jewish immigrants as well, and from the rest of Europe and from America,
and they do very well.
Actually, the western immigrants actually acquire wealth, and they’re adding money
to Denmark and not taking money out of Denmark.
Douglas Goldstein: How much economic pressure is being put on the economy as a result of
specifically this Muslim immigration, and how does the government plan to deal with
it?
Nicolai Sennels: I don’t know in other countries, but a country like Denmark is spending 16
billion each year on social benefits for non-Western immigrants, and as I mentioned before, there’s
a lot of expenses also on other areas and that’s an enormous amount compared to our
national product.
Douglas Goldstein: In order to deal with this problem, what policy changes could Denmark
and other European countries make?
Nicolai Sennels: It’s clear that we should stop immigration from Muslim countries.
It has only harmed our economy and our culture, and it has been harming both to an immense
degree besides the immigrants that we have here.
We should simply make it so economically unbeneficial not to integrate that the only effective option
would be to immigrate back to their home countries, positively with some economic help like we
do in Denmark, where we pay what amounts to about 15,000 Euros to immigrants who choose
to give up their residency in Denmark and move.
Douglas Goldstein: Is it otherwise difficult for someone to immigrate to Denmark?
Nicolai Sennels: For Western immigrants, they do very well.
I have a lot of friends here in Denmark who come from other Western countries, so in general,
it’s not.
But of course if you’re not really interested in integrating, and most non-Western immigrants
are not, then why should you?
Because whenever you integrate, our welfare has been so big and so strong that they will
anyway get a lot of money, free housing and food on the table, and there’s a lot of
extra social benefits that you can get in countries like Denmark.
On top of that, especially Muslims have the problem that they’re not allowed by their
family and the surrounding Muslim community to integrate and adapt to a western lifestyle,
and finally it seems to be difficult, even if you wanted to
and you’re not allowed to, like learning the language, and adapting to our culture
and so on.
Douglas Goldstein: For those of us on the outside, who look at Europe and investors
into Europe, is there anything positive that we should be looking towards?
Nicolai Sennels: I don’t see any positive signs also now it seems that we now have so
many Muslim immigrants in Europe now that they’re starting to be able to vote the
presidents they want, as we saw now lately.
We saw in France now, François Hollande was elected with a difference about 1.3 million
votes, perseverating him from the conservative candidate, and there are more than 2 million
Muslim voters in France and 93% of them are voting socialist.
They are a very big power now in Europe and they are not contributing in any positive
way.
Douglas Goldstein: Could you just people how can they follow your work?
Nicolai Sennels: I’m very much connected to the work of Robert Spencer so if you look
at his homepage www.jihadwatch.org, you will find a lot there or you can just Google my
name and you will find a lot.
Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host
of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 7:00 PM on www.israelnationalradio.com.
He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel.
Securities offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, NFA,
SIFMA.
Accounts carried by National Financial Services LLC.
Member NYSE/SIPC, a Fidelity Investments company.
His book Building Wealth in Israel is available in bookstores, on the web, or can be ordered
at: www.profile-financial.com (02) 624-2788 or (03) 524-0942.
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