Dalai Lama Says Enough with the Refugee Migration to Europe
The man known officially as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has come out with a position on the European migration crisis that clearly puts him at odds with other spiritual leaders.
In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, quoted by the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Dalai Lama said flatly, ���Europe, for example Germany, cannot become an Arab country. Germany is Germany. There are so many in practice that it becomes difficult.���
The Dalai Lama���s comments add more ���righteous��� fuel to the notion held by so many that it is possible to be compassionate without sacrificing the national integrity of a nation-state in the process. His expressed sentiments on the subject are distinctly dissimilar from those of Pope Francis, who has essentially put his imprimatur on the idea that refugees should be accepted without reservation by all of Europe. The Pope has said that it is possible for Europe to accept enormous numbers of refugees without sacrificing its national security or historical culture, but seems short on policy specifics as to how, exactly, that could be accomplished.
The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, apparently grasps the hard truth that it is not possible for a Western country to accept, without reservation, migrants that are vastly different in cultural orientation from its own people without significantly compromising both its security and cultural foundation.
As a matter of fact, the Dalai Lama also said in the interview that refugee acceptance by Europe should be temporary, and that the real endgame ���should be that they return and help rebuild their countries.���
While these are not the kinds of comments that many might expect from a spiritual leader who heads a religion based largely on a belief that practitioners exist to help those around them, it is a refreshing change from the ideas expressed on the topic by people like Pope Francis, who choose to feign ignorance of the fact that their own unique and privileged positions spare them, personally, of any of the unfortunate consequences that result from the implementation of their ideas on mass migration.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
