I broach this subject with prudence, knowing that the country of birth of a person is precious and sacred. Many things have happened in our countries of birth to make us ashamed. In England we had the Reformation and our Civil War, our often inhumane Empire and involvement in the two world wars. The French had their Revolution and Robespierre’s Terror. The Germans had the Nazis, the Italians the Roman Empire and Mussolini. So it goes on. We still love our countries of birth. I still love my native England and hope one day that her fortunes will turn in the direction of God’s light.

None of us can afford to be triumphalistic. America was to Europeans hundreds of years ago what Mars is now, with the speculations that man could do something about making that planet habitable. It was a new world from which people could take refuge to escape persecution, or on the other hand, to create ever more cruel and intolerant societies. Like elsewhere that was colonised by the British Empire, land was stolen and appropriated from those who had no conception of ownership, but who lived there as having received it as a gift from God and mother earth. America became what the strongest people made of it.

It could be argued that the same thing can legitimately happen again, the descendants of white Europeans being displaced by Muslims and Christians from the Middle-East in the same way as the USA welcomed persecuted Jewish people from Germany and other European countries in the twentieth century. It can be argued that any part of this earth is up for grabs by the meanest and strongest – giving rise to the importance of Constitution and Law, a notion of human rights for all. That is one principle that is ingrained into the American way as the Federation welcomed people of all cultures and beliefs.

How does America distinguish between all the different cultures and the arriving Islamic culture that also wants to conquer and practice ethnic cleansing (genocide)? I hope and pray that the present events will clear up many of these contradictions. It is going to be hard to underline the principles of human rights to liberty, life and free choice of philosophy of life or religion.

Is America western and Christian or free-for-all? There was the Civil War and all the stories of the gold diggers going west and staking their claims. Now, land has to be bought with money just like in the old world. Perhaps it is time for America to try influencing Europe (and Russia) in a different way so as to rebuild a humanist Christian civilisation.

Not wanting to offend the more patriotic among us, perhaps we could discuss some of these things from a historical and philosophical standpoint….