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Putting Tolerance to the Test: The Rise of Islam in Europe
CBN News ^ | March 22, 2004 | Dale Hurd

Posted on 03/22/2004 10:19:02 AM PST by Between the Lines

There is no exaggerating Arab and Muslim anger and resentment. Most Arab immigrants live in slums, with four to five times the unemployment rate of native Europeans.

(CBN News) - The most common name for baby boys in Brussels is Mohammed. There are as many as 15 million Arabs and Muslims living in Europe. Europe needs babies and immigrants, because its birthrate has imploded, but Europe's not sure it wants these immigrants, because it fears the rise of Islam.

The political temperature is rising in Europe. Arabs and Muslims already felt like outsiders before France banned the headscarves in schools. The Dutch parliament voted to expel 26,000 asylum seekers, many of them from the Third World. Some are wondering if it is the beginning of an anti-immigrant backlash.

Many Europeans are nervous. They like to think that they are more enlightened and tolerant than the rest of the world, but that tolerance is being tested by a wave of immigration that could change the face of Europe.

Anti-immigrant far-right parties are growing all across the continent. In Austria, The Freedom Party; In Italy, the Northern League; in Switzerland, The People's Party; In France, The National Front; In Belgium, The Flemish Block; In Denmark, the People's Party, In Norway, The Progress Party.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, of France's far-right political party National Front, told CBN News that the cause of most of France's problems are immigrants from Africa and Asia, and his slogan is "France for the French."

Frank Vanhecke is leader of the Vlaams Blok, or Flemish Block, in Belgium. The party is strong in Belgium's Dutch-speaking North, and is poised to take over the Antwerp city government. Vanhecke is worried about the growth of what he says is a radical Islamic sub-culture that refuses to assimilate, and which has begun demanding that Arabic become an official language of Belgium.

Vanhecke said, "This is the kind of people we are dealing with - people who do not come to our country to adapt, to make a new life, to start again, to make a living, to be thankful for the country that accepts them. We are talking about people who, in fact, come to us as rulers, who want to become masters in our country. And I personally think, I fear, that this is a part of the Islamic religion."

His party's platform calls for all immigrants who refuse to adapt to the values and language of Belgium to be returned to their home countries.

Gareth Harding, UPI Bureau Chief in Brussels, commented, "I think, incontestably, the far right is on the march." And those marching with it, he said, are the angry.

Harding added, "I think that they feel, by talking to them there, betrayed by these mainstream parties who have simply refused to deal with common concerns about immigration, and about crime and falling standards of living."

German policy analyst Mirjam Dittrich thinks the right wing threat is overblown. He said, "I think there is xenophobia in Europe. And, of course, there are right wing parties that are exploiting existing fears and are playing on those fears. But I think at the same time we shouldn't exaggerate the threat of these right wing parties."

But there is no exaggerating Arab and Muslim anger and resentment. Most Arab immigrants live in slums, with four to five times the unemployment rate of native Europeans. They feel like outsiders, and many are turning to radical Arab leaders like Diyab Abou JahJah. JahJah's been called the Belgian Malcolm X. He's the head of the Arab European League in Antwerp. And he says White Europe doesn't want to face reality.

JahJah said, "It doesn't want to adapt to the fact that this society is multicultural now. It still behaves and acts as if we were like 50 years ago, when everybody here was white and Catholic and talking Dutch."

But JahJah, who leads those who feel like outsiders, doesn't want Arab and Muslim culture to be assimilated into Europe. And that is exactly what the right wing fears.

"We do not want to debate integration or assimilation, " says JahJah, "because we don't believe in that kind of debate. We believe in a debate about how a country should treat its own citizens, because we are not foreigners."

There may now be as many as seven Arabs for every Jew in Europe, and some believe that is the major reason that anti-Semitism has returned to Europe. A poll last year showed that most Europeans now think Israel is the biggest threat to world peace. Attacks on synagogues, schools, cemeteries and Jews are reminiscent of the 1930's.

Jewish student Eli Mamane said, "I've had people call me dirty jew, stinking jew, smelly jew. They've said, 'You Jews are [the] world's problem at the moment.' "

Michael Whine of the Jewish Community Security Trust, said, "Anti-Semitism now comes from Islamists, from the Middle East, from the Arab media, and there's an overspill, both of tension in the Middle East and the anti-Semitism that's being promoted within the Arab states itself."

But unlike most Arabs in the Middle East, Arabs in Europe can vote. And as their political clout grows, Europe is likely to become more anti-Semitic, more anti-Israel, more anti-American. A clash of civilizations is looming in Europe. France tried to strike a blow to Islamic separatism when it banned headscarves on Muslim schoolgirls. Muslim leaders warn the ban will backfire.

But after the headscarf ban, Dr. Dalil Boubakeur, the leading moderate Muslim spokesman in France, told a newspaper that French Muslims had become social pariahs, and he predicted violence in the streets. Even before the headscarf ban it was not uncommon for Arab demonstrations to end in riots. And as anti-immigrant parties convince more Europeans that Islam is a threat to European civilization, their power will grow.

Vlaams Blok's Vanhecke said, "The Islamic religion is a religion of force, which despises non-Islamic peoples. I think this may sound hard, but I think it's the truth."

With immigrants having babies three times faster than native Europeans, Europe's future is going to be multi-cultural. But it may not be peaceful.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cbn; europeanmuslims; jihadineurope; religionofpeace
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"This is the kind of people we are dealing with - people who do not come to our country to adapt, to make a new life, to start again, to make a living, to be thankful for the country that accepts them. We are talking about people who, in fact, come to us as rulers, who want to become masters in our country. And I personally think, I fear, that this is a part of the Islamic religion."
1 posted on 03/22/2004 10:19:03 AM PST by Between the Lines
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To: Between the Lines
SEEMS SO!
2 posted on 03/22/2004 10:25:45 AM PST by RAY (Right or wrong, it is my country!)
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To: Between the Lines
There are as many as 15 million Arabs and Muslims living in Europe. Europe needs babies and immigrants, because its birthrate has imploded

A large part of the mative birthrate implosion, both in Europe and in the U.S., is the RESULT of massive 3rd Worlder immigration. Taxes go higher and higher, and a good chunk is for welfare programs and free public education to these immigrants. Civilized people who don't want their own standard of living heading the way of the 3rd World, put off having children and have fewer, because they're being taxed so heavily and don't have a lot left over.

3 posted on 03/22/2004 10:28:15 AM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: Between the Lines
The Dutch parliament voted to expel 26,000 asylum seekers, many of them from the Third World.

Many of them? Wouldn't they all be from the Third World? What you would be seeking asylum from if you were from a wealthy, industrialized nation?

4 posted on 03/22/2004 10:33:15 AM PST by prion
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To: Between the Lines
They like to think that they are more enlightened and tolerant than the rest of the world...

...when in actuality they are short-sighted, foolish, appeasement-minded, and effete.

5 posted on 03/22/2004 10:36:32 AM PST by luvbach1 (In the know on the border)
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To: Between the Lines
What do muslim immigrants to the West ultimately want? Could they really want to turn their Western hosts' countries into the third-world hellholes from whence they came?
6 posted on 03/22/2004 10:40:42 AM PST by luvbach1 (In the know on the border)
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To: luvbach1
I think you're on to something.
7 posted on 03/22/2004 10:42:33 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Between the Lines
Jean-Marie Le Pen, of France's far-right political party National Front, told CBN News that the cause of most of France's problems are immigrants from Africa and Asia, and his slogan is "France for the French."

Unfortunately, the right wing will be attacked as 'racist' by the moderate liberal elite media.

The only good thing I see happening is the nuclear disarmament of France by its peacenik politicians in advance of sharia law in that country.

That France would fall, complete with its nuclear arsenal, to Islamists, is a distinct possibility in coming decades.

8 posted on 03/22/2004 10:46:19 AM PST by Fitzcarraldo
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To: Between the Lines
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting editorial on this subject, today. They state that these Muslim immigrants moved to Europe, not to assimiliate but to colonize (my term, not the author's). The immigrants left the oppression of their own Arab states for the freedom of the democracies but the only freedom that they were interested in was to follow their own Islamic law. Many of the leaders of the these exiles were persona non grata in their own countries, haven't openly encouraged rebellion of the lower classes against the rulers. The head Islamacist in London is under a death sentence in Egypt,and cannot go to any other Arab country for fear of extradition. The Arab countries, along with the Euro weaners are hoping that appeasement of the Islamofascists will spare them from the wrath of the terrorists. They are living in a dream world.
9 posted on 03/22/2004 10:47:15 AM PST by Eva
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To: Between the Lines
''JahJah said, "It doesn't want to adapt to the fact that this society is multicultural now.''
The problem is the Islamists do not want a multcultural country. They want to destroy the European cultural and force the Sharia on Europe.
10 posted on 03/22/2004 10:47:25 AM PST by LauraJean (Fukai please pass the squid sauce)
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To: Between the Lines
Religion of Peace


11 posted on 03/22/2004 10:52:55 AM PST by petercooper (I actually did vote for the $87 Billion, before I voted against it.)
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To: Between the Lines
Good article. Bttt
12 posted on 03/22/2004 10:53:41 AM PST by DoctorMichael (The Fourth Estate is a Fifth Column!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Between the Lines
French Nuclear Forces Guide

30 June 1996 Cessation of the production of highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons

It appears France is undergoing a nuclear disarmamant program - this is one 'surrender' that might actually save us much grief in the future...

13 posted on 03/22/2004 11:00:37 AM PST by Fitzcarraldo
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To: prion
Wouldn't they all be from the Third World?

I also loved the part about how they live in slums with high unemployment rates. Any slum is better than a dried mud and camel dung house in sub-Saharan Africa with zero chances of employment.

14 posted on 03/22/2004 11:03:04 AM PST by Between the Lines
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To: Eva
I'll have to check that out in the WSJ. I must say though, that it would be out of character for the WSJ journal to print anything remotely critical of mass immigration. Usually they engage in leftwing tactics of smearing anyone who dares to question the glories of it; or maybe its the case that that only applies to mass immigration into the United States.
15 posted on 03/22/2004 11:04:23 AM PST by Aetius
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In the absense of a religious revival (which seems very unlikely) does anyone think that there is a chance that Europeans will ever decide to simply have more children, and reverse their slow demographic death?
16 posted on 03/22/2004 11:08:35 AM PST by Aetius
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To: Aetius
No, the editorial was written by the author of a book, The Dream Palace of the Arabs, not a member of the WSJ editorial board. But it would apply only to Arab immigrants, anyway. I don't think that the WSJ sees the other US immigrants as a fifth column.
17 posted on 03/22/2004 11:18:58 AM PST by Eva
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To: Between the Lines
bumping for a later read
18 posted on 03/22/2004 11:25:55 AM PST by jocon307 (The dems don't get it, the American people do.)
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To: LauraJean
>>The problem is the Islamists do not want a multcultural country. They want to destroy the European cultural and force the Sharia on Europe.

That isn't the real problem. The real problem is that most of Europe has blinders to this fact, and is unwilling to recognize it and take appropriate action to counter the Islamist's actions.
19 posted on 03/22/2004 1:07:24 PM PST by FreedomPoster (This space intentionally blank)
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To: Between the Lines
From the article:
Anti-immigrant far-right parties are growing all across the continent. In Austria, The Freedom Party; In Italy, the Northern League; in Switzerland, The People's Party; In France, The National Front; In Belgium, The Flemish Block; In Denmark, the People's Party, In Norway, The Progress Party.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, of France's far-right political party National Front, told CBN News that the cause of most of France's problems are immigrants from Africa and Asia, and his slogan is "France for the French."

So be it. Bring on the right wingers.

Only then will there be a concerted effort to ethnically-cleanse (and I use that word with deliberate care) the nations of Europe back towards their pre-Islamic-invasion status. The far-righters are the ONLY political faction which realizes the danger at hand, and, once they assume power, are the ONLY ones who will take whatever actions necessary, including extreme ones, to reverse the situation.

Without them, the whites of Europe will collapse into continental Weimar and meekly watch as they are pushed from power and their cultures are marked for extermination, all the time fearing to fight back because of their collective "white guilt".

The Islamics who would vanquish them _have no_ guilt about their culture or race. Perhaps this is why without a bold resurgence of the right in Europe, Europeans, both as a race and a culture, may face extinction.

Regardless of what else one may think of the French at this point in history... France _is_ "for the French". As is Holland for the Dutch, Germany for the Germans, Spain for the Spaniards, and Denmark for the Danes.

Cheers!
- John

20 posted on 03/22/2004 1:38:57 PM PST by Fishrrman
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