If ever there was a day that revealed the true colours of Europe, then Wednesday was it. On that day, 19 Afghan refugees, including women and children, landed in Frankfurt, Germany, to start a "better" life.
There may have not been much turbulence in the air for the first batch of Afghan evacuees, but there was some waiting for them on land. If not in Frankfurt, surely in Hamburg where they were headed. Soon, they will be taught how not to be a Muslim.
No modesty of the burqa, please. We are Europeans. And if they are unlucky enough to head for France, the Afghans will be forced to adopt a French version of Islam freshly minted by French President Emmanuel Macron. Those who are on "civilising" missions often do this. Christianity long ago succumbed to secularism thus.
Now, the Emmanuel Macrons of the world want Islam to do likewise. Germany, a rather hospitable nation to immigrants in 2015 under outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, is going ballistic with anti-migrant rhetoric. So is much of Europe.
Far-right media are only too pleased to print screaming headlines like "Not 2015 again". But wasn't it Europe that hastily hurried its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces to join the United States army in invading Afghanistan? And stayed on for 20 years to maim and murder Afghans, including women and children, whom they claimed to be there to save.
Surely Europe, the "civilised" continent on a "civilising" mission everywhere, has the moral duty to host the people whom it has displaced. The New York Times quotes Macron as saying last Monday, "Europe alone cannot assume the consequences of Afghanistan's fall."
We have this to say to Macron: if you are quick to reap the rewards of invasion, you better be as rapid with taking in the risks. Those who are on a "civilising" mission must remember this: there is no reset button for invasions.
Certainly, Europe has the right to stop the flow of refugees into its borders. But to earn this right to stop the flow of refugees, Europe must do three things.
One, it must stop its "civilising" mission by invasion. Not everyone wants to be a White European. Even if some do, they will never be "White" enough. Or European enough. People must be allowed to be themselves. Why is it that "freedom" must always mean what the West says it is? If Europe hasn't realised it, it must know by now that its "civilising" mission within the continent to make everyone "secular" is an exercise in failure. Europe needs to learn how to be faith blind.
Two, Europe must stop other nations from embarking on such "civilising" missions. If it is unable to, the least it can do is stay out of such missions. The US is an errant nation. Mistakes are plenty, and yet it hasn't learnt a single lesson.
Finally, Europe must make war criminals accountable for their crimes. It can start with putting on trial war criminals such as former British prime minister Tony Blair, former US president George W. Bush and former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
So long as these terrible three remain free — with much help from the European Union, no doubt — Europe's claim of being a law-abiding continent rings hollow. To license impunity isn't a civilised thing to do. It is here that Europe's "civilising" mission must begin.
