There is a lot of talk about Muslims allegedly taking over quarters of entire cities. Gangs, no-go areas, and so on.
People say they feel "no longer at home" in their home country, because Muslims allegedly do not just exist side to side with them, but actually display threatening behavior -- harassing or insulting Europeans/Westeners, using their high numbers to intimidate them.
I'm curious: How many of you have experienced this first hand? How many have just read about it? And if it's the latter, where have you read or heard about it?
As for myself, all these terrible things you read and hear of, I've never experienced myself. I live in Berlin, and here are plenty Muslims. There are quarters that even have a predominantly Muslim "look" -- if you count shops run by people with roots in a Muslim country, in this case Turkish. I've often been in these quarters, even at night.
I currently do a formation, and in my school, about a third of the students has roots in a Muslim country. Out of 30 students, 8 young women wear a headscarf.
Yet my impression is: There is no problem. I've never encountered hostile behavior by Muslim immigrants which I wouldn't expect from natives too under certain conditions, save for a certain rudeness occasionally (in these regards, not different from the rudeness many natives display occasionally). The headscarf girls in the school don't separate themselves, but join talks with all other students, share their plans and dreams, or talk about the latest movie or PS4 game they played.
I asked some of them if they're wearing the scarf out of religious conviction, or tradition. Many didn't even know a real answer, said they aren't really very religious, said it was just for the sake of their relatives. One said it's both, and when we talked about Islam, I found she's not radical at all -- she expressed regret that Mouhanad Khorchide, a liberal modernist German-Muslim theologician, meets so much hostility from "conservatives".
Two or three Turkish immigrant women do not wear a scarf -- they said they identify as "laicists".
No "parallel culture" in that class, as far as I can see.
What does bother me, are bunches of adolescent male Muslim immigrants, who are annoying, because they're loud, obnoxious and disrespectful on the street -- but as I said above, no real threat. Either you change the side of the street when you see them, or when you do meet them, telling them firmly to just cut the crap will usually do the trick. I've never encountered them becoming a real threat.
There were two more serious incidents in my environment, involving a Muslim perpetrator. But it was possible in these cases to attach individual blame, rather than basing it on ethnicity.
So what about you? Have you first hand experience with "the Muslim problem"?
there are quite a few Muslims in the villages and towns. Many women wear scarves or such over their heads. Only few cover their faces. There are a lot of Blacks that sell illegal merchandise in the towns along the coast that will threaten you, if they think you are taking their picture. But all told, there are only few complaints, if you don't mind a sheep being bled to death for the holidays next door.
we are outside of Aachen, where the Muslim populations are usually concentrated in relatively small areas and town centers. I have never experienced any problems and quite enjoy the stores and restaurants. But there have been a growing number of incidents of various types of violence aimed at women or the police that been spectacular in a small way and disturbed the population. The increased theft, break and entries and robberies that are disturbing the people more are almost exclusively EU citizens from the East and the growing drug problems are Dutch and homegrown.
Well not at that particular moment anyway.