Two things about this interview are especially notable. The first is that the person being interviewed, George Jacobs, is part of the Establisment: IMF economist, banker, industrialist. The second is that his remarks were completely unprompted. The interview wasn’t about this topic. It was generally about economic affairs. Then, suddenly, he wanders off and starts talking about islamisation.
In Belgium, it’s the change in demographics that worries me. I’m totally in favour of the opening of our borders and see a positive aspect to immigration, but I am struck by the difference in the cultures which currently make up our society. I am afraid that we are not succeeding in with this integration in a world where we have to integrate.
You are thinking mainly of the islamisation of Brussels?
Many Islamists are worried about their extremism. That worries me. We have become a soft civilisation in general, and thus also in the face of islamisation! If we are soft faced with people who arrive with a force of conviction and ready to do anything in the name of irrationality… it’s dangerous, because nothing can stop irrationality. A Muslim burgomeister does not bother me as long as the cultures understand one another and we do not withdraw from politics because they are there. Too often, we withdraw when confronted by them...
Specifically, what risk do you see?
I fear for the future of western Europe if it doesn’t succeed in integrating the new cultures, as the USA has done. The risk is of an imbalance, as much because of the retreat of the first as the aggressiveness of the second in their will to have the last word.