Video: PWEI – “Ich Bin Ein Auslander”

I don’t usually post music videos on this blog but yesterday’s post on Islamophobia got me thinking.  Once upon a time, I thought it could never happen again.  It was the early 1990s and we’d learned about the Holocaust, Vietnam and Apartheid in school and thought it was all behind us. 

In 1994, Pop Will Eat Itself released “Ich Bin Ein Auslander”.  I thought it was ever so clever and loved the song but I certainly never thought the lyrics would come to actually mean anything.

The Rwanda genocide took place between 6 April and early-July 1994.

The Srebrenica genocide took place in July 1995.

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Pop Will Eat Itself - “Ich Bin Ein Auslander”
Dos Dedos Mis Amigos (1994)

Listen to the victim, abused by the system
The basis is racist, you know that we must face this.
"It can't happen here". Oh yeah?
"Take a look around at the cities and the towns."

See them hunting, creeping, sneaking
Breeding fear and loathing with the lies they're speaking
The knife, the gun, broken bottle, petrol bomb
There is no future when the past soon come.

And when they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Or laugh through a glass eye as they rape our lives
Trampled underfoot by the right on the rise

[CHORUS]
"You call us..."....Ich Bin Ein Auslander (x4)

Welcome to a state where the politics of hate
Shout loud in the crowd "Watch them beat us all down"
There's a rising tide in the rivers of blood
But if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence

If they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
Trampled underfoot by the rise of the right

[CHORUS]
Ich Bin Ein Auslander. (x8)

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Islamophobia: Hate Comes to Orange County

How is this different to the mind set in Nazi-occupied Europe?

How is this not hate speech? 

This is not just talk and it is not harmless.  Young children were verbally assaulted in this video, men and women who were doing nothing but peacefully going about their business.  How is this different to the harassment that Jews, homosexuals and other minorities experienced in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s?

There is no doubt in my mind that the more people believe this is okay, apologise and make excuses for these types of actions, the more people pave the way for acceptance when mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide occur. 

I don’t think we’ve learned anything.  9/11 was a terrible action committed by terrorists and I abhor and denounce terrorism.  Every year I remember victims of 9/11 (as well as 7/7 and the Mumbai terror attacks).  But if you say (as was said in this video) “remember 9/11” then you need to remember the other event where we said “never forget”.  Never forget that unchecked hatred, propaganda, stereotyping, bullying and harassment can lead to 10 million deaths. 

Not all Muslims are terrorists, not all Muslims are radicalised.  Islam is a religion of peacefulness and charity but really, if you took the time you would learn that Muslims are just individuals like you and I.  But you don’t take the time, do you?

"First they came for the Jews
...and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
...and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
...and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
...and there was no one left to speak out for me"

- Martin Niemöller

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