THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 87, April 3, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WILL EUROPE RESIST ISLAMIZATION?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
MUSLIM IMMIGRATION INTO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES & ITS THREAT TO WESTERN CULTURE: MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS
& THEIR DRIVE TO IMPOSE THEIR LAWS, CUSTOMS, & TRADITIONS ON EUROPEAN SOCIETIES -- VISIBLE SIGNS OF THE
RELUCTANCE OF EUROPEANS TO ACCEPT ISLAMIC WAYS -- GROWING POPULARITY OF ANTI-IMMIGRANT, NATIONALIST
PARTIES THROUGHOUT WESTERN EUROPE -- INDICATIONS OF THE LIKELY EMERGENCE OF A CHRISTIAN, CONSTITUTIONAL
DEMOCRATIC, & ENLIGHTENED CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT REASSERTING EUROPEAN & WESTERN VALUES & INTENT ON
DEFENDING & PRESERVING EUROPE'S HISTORIC IDENTITY
FULL STORY:
Some analysts of Islam in Western Europe argue that the continent cannot escape its Eurabian fate; that the trend lines
of the past half-century will continue until Muslims become a majority population and Islamic law (the Shari‘a) reigns.
I disagree, arguing that there is another route the continent might take, one of resistance to Islamification and a reassertion
of traditional ways. Indigenous Europeans – who make up 95 percent of the population – can insist on their historic
customs and mores. Were they to do so, nothing would be in their way and no one could stop them.
Indeed, Europeans are visibly showing signs of impatience with creeping Shari‘a. The legislation in France that prohibits
hijabs from public school classrooms signals the reluctance to accept Islamic ways, as are related efforts to ban burqas,
mosques, and minarets. Throughout Western Europe, anti-immigrant parties are generally increasing in popularity.
That resistance took a new turn last week, with two dramatic events. First, on March 22, Pope Benedict XVI himself
baptized, confirmed, and gave the Eucharist to Magdi Allam, 56, a prominent Egyptian-born Muslim long living in Italy,
where he is a top editor at the Corriere della Sera newspaper and a well-known author. Allam took the middle name
Cristiano. The ceremony converting him to the Catholic religion could not have been higher profile, occurring at a nighttime
service at St. Peter's Basilica on the eve of Easter Sunday, with exhaustive coverage from the Vatican and many other
television stations.
Allam followed up his conversion with a stinging statement in which he argued that beyond "the phenomenon of Islamic
extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically
violent and historically conflictive." In other words, the problem is not just Islamism, but Islam itself. One commentator,
"Spengler" of Asia Times, goes so far as to say that Allam "presents an existential threat to Muslim life" because he
"agrees with his former co-religionists in repudiating the degraded culture of the modern West, and offers them something
quite different: a religion founded upon love."
Second, on March 27, Geert Wilders, 44, released his long-awaited, 15-minute film, Fitna, which consists of some of
the most bellicose verses of the Koran, followed by actions in accord with those verses carried out by Islamists in
recent years. The obvious implication is that Islamists are simply acting in accord with their scriptures. In Allam's words,
Wilders also argues that "the root of evil is inherent" in Islam.
Unlike Allam and Wilders, I do distinguish between Islam and Islamism, but I believe it imperative that their ideas get a
fair hearing, without vituperation or punishment. An honest debate over Islam must take place.
If Allam's conversion was a surprise and Wilders' film had a three-month run-up, in both cases, the aggressive, violent
reactions that met prior criticisms of Islam did not take place. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Dutch
police contacted imams to gauge reactions at the city's mosques and found, according to police spokesman Arnold Aben,
"it's quieter than usual here today. Sort of like a holiday." In Pakistan, a rally against the film attracted only some dozens of
protestors.
This relatively constrained reaction points to the fact that Muslim threats sufficed to enforce censorship. Dutch Prime
Minister Jan Peter Balkenende denounced Fitna and, after 3.6 million visitors had viewed it on the British website
LiveLeak.com, the company announced that "Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, …
Liveleak has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers." (Two days later, however,
LiveLeak again posted the film.)
Three similarities bear noting: both Allam (author of a book titled Viva Israele) and Wilders (whose film emphasizes
Muslim violence against Jews) stand up for Israel and the Jews; Muslim threats against their lives have forced both for
years to live under state-provided round-the-clock police protection; and, more profoundly, the two share a passion for
European civilization.
Indeed, Allam and Wilders may represent the vanguard of a Christian, constitutional democratic, and enlightened
reassertion of European values. It is too soon to predict, but these staunch individuals could provide a crucial boost for
those intent on maintaining the continent's historic identity.
© Daniel Pipes 2008
Originally Published in the Jerusalem Post, April 3, 2008
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, April 3, 2008
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5503
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Europe, European States, Politics, & Public Policy
Europe, Europeans, & American Foreign Policy
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
Daniel Pipes is the Taube/Diller Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University during the
Spring Semester of 2008.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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