Islamification Moving Fast, But To Where?
The Islamification of Europe was featured last week in a Washington Times four-part series that included both a troubling view of increased fanaticism, and a passive view that it's just an economic issue and not all that much cause for concern -- "they do the jobs no one else will do." (here)
In Europe and here the question of how established societies will respond to a growing, terror-tinged population of Arabs and Muslims will test our principles and our security.
The European immigration is now over 50 years old, having started with waves of North African immigrants who came to help rebulid Europe in the 1940s and 1950s. It's entrenched, multi-generational, and large: In a few years, the Muslim population of Europe will be equal to the black population in America on a percentage basis, and by mid-century, they will constitute 20 percent of the continent's population.
Like American blacks, European Muslims tend to be concentrated in older urban neighborhoods and are not enjoying the same degree of economic prosperity as the majority of the white population. Politicians will rally them, champion them and use them, and the results will likely frustrate a great number of young Muslims, who have access to mentors in violence that are far more sophisticated than the Black Panthers ever were.
A Chicago Tribune piece, run in today's OC Register (here) looks at this powder keg situtation in detail. Here's a typical passage:
From the Paris suburbs 25 years ago, Shiite Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini planned a revolution that ultimately overthrew the Shah of Iran and, in turn, helped inspire a global Islamic revival. The fallout is easily visible today as the children and grandchildren of Muslim immigrants in Europe increasingly embrace religion. In France and England, polls show greater commitment to daily prayers, mosque attendance and fasting during Ramadan than there was a decade ago.
Unlike earlier immigrants, who were bent on returning home flush with cash, more-recent arrivals have been deterred by the turmoil in their homelands and stayed, building families that are larger than those of their graying ethnic European neighbors. The effect is amplified by the decline of European Christianity. The number of people who call themselves Catholic, the continent's largest denomination, has declined by more than a third in the past 25 years.
The results are stark. Within six years, for instance, the three largest cities in the Netherlands will be majority Muslim. One-third of all German Muslims are younger than 18, nearly twice the proportion among the general population.
With that growth, and the deepening strains between the U.S. and the Islamic world, radical Muslim clerics have found no shortage of adherents. A 2002 poll of British Muslims found that 44 percent believe attacks by al-Qaida are justified as long as "Muslims are being killed by America and its allies using American weapons." Germany estimates that there are 31,000 Islamists in the country, based on membership lists of some federations.
Our Muslim population is growing as well, with the same sort of split in the population between secularists, reformists and fundamentalists, so Europe is proving to be an interesting Petri dish for us to observe. But it will be like observing global warming: The systems are so complex, there are minute trends and mighty events to be observed, there are conflicting information points, slow change and flash points.
It seems like all we can count on is that we'll know how it all turns out when it all turns out -- and that's not good enough.
In Europe and here the question of how established societies will respond to a growing, terror-tinged population of Arabs and Muslims will test our principles and our security.
The European immigration is now over 50 years old, having started with waves of North African immigrants who came to help rebulid Europe in the 1940s and 1950s. It's entrenched, multi-generational, and large: In a few years, the Muslim population of Europe will be equal to the black population in America on a percentage basis, and by mid-century, they will constitute 20 percent of the continent's population.
Like American blacks, European Muslims tend to be concentrated in older urban neighborhoods and are not enjoying the same degree of economic prosperity as the majority of the white population. Politicians will rally them, champion them and use them, and the results will likely frustrate a great number of young Muslims, who have access to mentors in violence that are far more sophisticated than the Black Panthers ever were.
A Chicago Tribune piece, run in today's OC Register (here) looks at this powder keg situtation in detail. Here's a typical passage:
From the Paris suburbs 25 years ago, Shiite Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini planned a revolution that ultimately overthrew the Shah of Iran and, in turn, helped inspire a global Islamic revival. The fallout is easily visible today as the children and grandchildren of Muslim immigrants in Europe increasingly embrace religion. In France and England, polls show greater commitment to daily prayers, mosque attendance and fasting during Ramadan than there was a decade ago.
Unlike earlier immigrants, who were bent on returning home flush with cash, more-recent arrivals have been deterred by the turmoil in their homelands and stayed, building families that are larger than those of their graying ethnic European neighbors. The effect is amplified by the decline of European Christianity. The number of people who call themselves Catholic, the continent's largest denomination, has declined by more than a third in the past 25 years.
The results are stark. Within six years, for instance, the three largest cities in the Netherlands will be majority Muslim. One-third of all German Muslims are younger than 18, nearly twice the proportion among the general population.
With that growth, and the deepening strains between the U.S. and the Islamic world, radical Muslim clerics have found no shortage of adherents. A 2002 poll of British Muslims found that 44 percent believe attacks by al-Qaida are justified as long as "Muslims are being killed by America and its allies using American weapons." Germany estimates that there are 31,000 Islamists in the country, based on membership lists of some federations.
Our Muslim population is growing as well, with the same sort of split in the population between secularists, reformists and fundamentalists, so Europe is proving to be an interesting Petri dish for us to observe. But it will be like observing global warming: The systems are so complex, there are minute trends and mighty events to be observed, there are conflicting information points, slow change and flash points.
It seems like all we can count on is that we'll know how it all turns out when it all turns out -- and that's not good enough.
posted by Laer at 10:31 AM
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