Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Third Attack in Germany in a Week

There was yet another attack by a refugee in Germany on Sunday, July 24. According to the reports, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee died when a bomb he was carrying in his rucksack went off outside a music festival in Ansbach, in the southern German state of Bavaria. The reports suggest that the man had been denied entry to the festival as he did not have a ticket.
At least 12 people were injured, among whom three are serious. The attacker had been denied asylum in Germany a year ago, but allowed to stay provisionally because of deteriorated security situation back home. As per the German interior ministry, the man was to be deported to Bulgaria. According to a statement by Joachim Hermann, the Bavarian Interior Minister, the attack could be an Islamist suicide attack.
A few hours earlier, another Syrian refugee attacked and killed a Polish woman he worked with in a fast-food restaurant with a knife, and injured two others in the town of Reutlingen in south-west Germany. According to police, who arrested the young man at the scene, the attack happened after an argument broke out between the man and woman. They said the attack was not terrorism-related.
These two incidents came less than a week after a 17-year-old Afghan refugee having an axe attacked people on a train in southern Germany and was shot dead by police as he was trying to flee. The biggest attack of the past seven days was actually not committed by an asylum-seeker: an 18-year-old dual German-Iranian national shot and killed nine people in a shopping mall in Munich on July 22. He was mentally unstable, and had been planning the attack for a year.
Definitely, immigration along with the developments in communication and transportation has made it possible for the people of different cultural backgrounds to get closer to each other, which has given rise to the concept of multiculturalism. There are various challenges that a multicultural society has to face. Among them acceptability is one of the most important ones. Further, the society wherein multiculturalism has to exist always generates a sort of fear of loss of national identity. This loss of national identity sometimes takes the form of political struggle through political platforms, while at other times it may take the form of violent measures. And on certain occasions it is also possible that the political parties themselves turn violent in the pursuit of their motto.
The concept of multiculturalism has not been able to implement itself thoroughly in the world. The multiculturalism has not been able to form a global ethics or a global code of conduct. It has been lost somewhere in cultural relativism. The cultures or the negatives in the cultures are accepted with the claims of cultural relativism. If the same inclination towards cultural relativism is maintained it would be very difficult for today's world to form common values, laws or systems, which are very necessary to avoid clashes among the cultures and civilizations. Unfortunately, our today's world is moving right towards the same kind of clashes.
On the other hand this is going to strengthen the phenomenon of ethnocentrism. Though many sociologists believe that ethnocentrism, to a certain extent, is unavoidable, as every individual of group of individuals have to think from their own cultural and social backgrounds and may have a perspective of others in relation to their own cultural norms and values; however, the intensity and sense of extremism in this regard can prove detrimental for world peace and for the concept of co-existence. 
The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion. These ethnic distinctions and subdivisions serve to define each ethnicity's unique cultural identity. Ethnocentrism may be overt or subtle, and while it is considered a natural proclivity of human psychology, it has developed a generally negative connotation.
Anthropological studies reveal that People born into a particular culture that grow up absorbing the values and behaviors of the culture will develop a worldview that considers their culture to be the norm. 
It is really fine that the different cultures in the world sustain their identity and even be proud of their historical and cultural backgrounds but they are never entitled to subjugate and devalue others cultures and values. Nonetheless, when there is the discussion of a multicultural society, there are some necessary safeguards against ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. In a multicultural society, there is a requirement of common values that do not harass human beings and violate their rights, even if the same is suggested in a particular culture.
The developed countries of the world today experience a process of multiculturalism, wherein they are facing the problems generated by extreme ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. However, none should substitute multiculturalism as it is the evolution human beings have made in their social lives. Definitely, it is time consuming and yet there is a long way to go to achieve it. For the time being states marked with multiculturalism have to introduce hard and fast rules and vigilant checks against any sort of attempt to strengthen violation of it. However, the developed nations of the world must never strive to go against it, not because the deprived nations benefit from it but because it is favorable for all the human beings. Further, this will prove them more evolved.