Islam gaining within Europe is the theme of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West by Christopher Caldwell, reviewed in the NY Times. The subject is becoming popular, but Mr. Caldwell is said to put the thesis more boldly and painstakingly.
The thesis is that Muslims don’t come to absorb and enhance European culture but to displace it. Arriving in large numbers and reproducing in large numbers, Muslims are swamping European culture. Instead of integrating, they are developing a separate Muslim society within their host countries. They don’t much serve in their new countries’ military. They are boosting antisemitism.
The 2005 Muslim riots in France were thought to reflect frustration over being left behind in French society. Mr. Caldwell, however, interprets the riots as opening shots in a war on French society.
Not opposed to immigration per se, Caldwell feels that the subject is important for Europe, but any critic of the Muslim danger is called Islamophobic and receives death threats. Formerly France’s interior minister, Sarkozy defied “uncritical multiculturalism” and reduced the number of first-time residency permits,
What about Muslim leaders who publicly say they favor tolerance? One such leader is Tariq Ramadan, of Switzerland. It is a pose. Mr. Ramadan uses coded language to appeal to his followers’ intolerance. Can Europe’s insecure, relativistic culture resist the aggressive newcomers? (Dwight Garner, 7/30, C4.)
The lack of military service by Muslims in Europe is not true of Russia. Some estimate that Muslims constitute 20% of Russian troops. That is dangerous. Whether Muslims want to use violence to prevail is not the whole issue, because on their way to becoming a majority they can influence and take over non-violently. Then they would oppress the native Europeans. Reverse colonialism.
