, Columnist
Dalai Lama's Pipe Dream for Europe's Refugees
The world's most famous exile is wrong that most Syrians will be able to return.
His hope for refugees everywhere.
Photographer: Shyam SharmaThis article is for subscribers only.
The Dalai Lama is one of the most admired people in the world; he is also the world's most famous refugee. That makes his recent comments to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -- that Germany has too many Muslim refugees -- both surprising and controversial; perhaps more so than they should be.
Taken out of context, the Dalai Lama's words in the interview with the German daily seem to fit right in with messages from the anti-immigrant Alternative fuer Deutschland party. "There are now too many," he said. "Europe, for example Germany, cannot be an Arab land. Germany is Germany."