Eurabia

Islam in Europe      <1%      1%-2% (Italy, Norway, Greece)      2%-3% (Denmark Spain, Slovenia, UK)      3%-4% (Germany, Sweden, Serbia)      4%-5% (Belgium, Austria, Switzerland)      5%-10% (Netherlands, France)      10%-20% (Russia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Cyprus)      20%-40% (Macedonia)      40%-60% (Bosnia and Herzegovina)      60%-80% (Albania)      80%-95% (Kosovo)      >95% (Turkey)

Eurabia is a political neologism; referring to the premise that the Muslim population in Europe will become a majority within a few generations due to continued immigration and high birth rates.

The term was publicized by the writer Bat Ye'or, especially in her 2005 book Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, referring to joint Euro-Arab foreign policies which she characterizes as anti-American and anti-Zionist.[1] The term is generally used in combination with "dhimmitude", another term introduced by Ye'or, denoting an attitude of concession, surrender and appeasement towards Islam.

Critics of the theory view it as alarmist.

Contents

Origin of the term

Further information: Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis

Eurabia was originally the title of a newsletter published by the Comité européen de coordination des associations d'amitié avec le monde Arabe.[2] According to Bat Ye'or, it was published collaboratively with France-Pays Arabes (journal of the Association de solidarité franco-arabe or ASFA), Middle East International (London), and the Groupe d'Etudes sur le Moyen-Orient (Geneva).[3] During the 1973 oil crisis, the European Economic Community (predecessor of the European Union), had entered into the Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) with the Arab League.[4] Bat Ye'or later used the journal title Eurabia to describe the associated political developments.

In her book, Bat Ye'or describes Eurabia as a result of the French-led European policy originally intended to increase European power against the United States by aligning its interests with those of the Arab countries, and regards it as a primary cause of European hostility to Israel.

Current usage

Current use of the term differs from than that of Bat Ye'or, with more attention to Muslim immigration and demographics, and to the difficulties of assimilating Europe's Islamic populations. Niall Ferguson wrote in the New York Times that the idea of Eurabia has ...gained credibility since 9/11. The 3/11 bombings in Madrid confirm that terrorists sympathetic to Osama bin Laden continue to operate with comparative freedom in European cities. Some American commentators suspect Europeans of wanting to appease radical Islam. Others detect in sporadic manifestations of anti-Semitism a sinister conjunction of old fascism and new fundamentalism.[5]

The term Eurabia has been popularized by writers such Oriana Fallaci,[6] Robert Spencer,[7] Daniel Pipes,[8] Ayaan Hirsi Ali,[9] Melanie Phillips,[10] Mark Steyn[11] (and several web sites[12]). Others, such as Bernard Lewis[13] and Bruce Bawer have presented comparable scenarios.

Waleed Aly, in an article, published in the Melbourne Age, responding to Raphael Israeli's call for controls limiting Muslim immigration to Australia (lest a "critical mass" develop); observed that Raphael Israeli's comments are a cause for concern "because they are not as marginal as they are mad." Aly continues that Israeli's latest book "is an unoriginal appropriation of the 'Eurabia' conspiracy thesis of Jewish writer Bat Ye'or: that Europe is evolving into a post-Judeo-Christian civilisation increasingly subjugated to the jihadi ideology of Muslim migrants" and that the theory has received "enthusiastic support" from intellectuals in Europe and activists in the USA.[14]

Implications and response

The BBC, reporting on the results of a Gallup poll conducted in 21 countries for the World Economic Forum (WEF), said the results suggested that most Europeans thought more interaction with Islam would be a threat - though most Americans disagreed. The BBC continued that WEF chairman Klaus Schwab said the poll pointed to "an alarmingly low level of optimism" over dialogue.[15]

Not all supporters of the theory see 'Eurabia' as inevitable.[16] Some advocate the prohibition of Islam[17] and some advocate a direct confrontation. In an article entitled Confrontation, not appeasement, Ayaan Hirsi Ali demands a confrontational policy at European level, to meet the threat of radical Islam, and compares non-confrontational policies with Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler.[18] Specifically, she proposes: careful monitoring of the demographic growth of the Muslim population in Europe, registration of all violent incidents against women, Jews and homosexuals, including the (religious) identity of the perpetrator, Europe must recognise the United States and Israel as allies in the struggle against radical Islam, development of alternative energy sources, reduction of dependence on oil, an European immigration policy, which makes entry conditional on allegiance to the national constitution: Immigrants should sign a contract to obey the Constitution, and should be deported if they break it, ideological confrontation with the generation infected by radical Islam: all Muslims must explicitly renounce radical Islam, offer good education, close all Islamic schools, and prohibit the opening of new ones

During the conference "The collapse of Europe" at Pepperdine University, Ayaan Hirsi Ali asked for "reform, meaning, to reduce government, where government is unnecessary, and especially the welfare state."[19]

According to Johann Hari, "Steyn's wider response to Islamism is to make democratic societies more like the one the Islamists want to build."[20] [[]]

Criticism of the Eurabia theory

Matt Carr has written, in In the July issue of the Race & Class (A Journal on Racism, Empire and Globalisation) [9] that What began as an outlandish conspiracy theory has become a dangerous Islamophobic fantasy...[21]

Justin Vaisse says the book intends to debunk "four myths of the alarmist school." Using Muslims in France as an example, he says:

The theory of Eurabia has been compared to antisemitic writings by left-wing British journalist Johann Hari calls the two "startlingly similar" and says that "there are intellectuals on the British right who are propagating a conspiracy theory about Muslims that teeters very close to being a 21st century Protocols of the Elders of Zion."[25]

Notes

  1. ↑ 'Eurabia' Defined, Andrew G. Bostom, American Thinker, November 15, 2005
  2. ↑ (French) Archive list Universités de Paris
  3. ↑ Bat Ye'or, Le dialogue Euro-Arabe et la naissance d'Eurabia, Observatoire du Monde Juif, December 2002, English translation
  4. ↑ MEDEA: Euro-Arab dialogue
  5. ↑ Niall Ferguson, THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 4-4-04; Eurabia?, New York Times, April 4, 2004 [1]
  6. ↑ (Italian) "Sono quattr' anni che parlo di nazismo islamico, di guerra all' Occidente, di culto della morte, di suicidio dell' Europa. Un' Europa che non è più Europa ma Eurabia e che con la sua mollezza, la sua inerzia, la sua cecità, il suo asservimento al nemico si sta scavando la propria tomba." in Oriana Fallaci, Il nemico che trattiamo da amico, Corriere della Sera, 2006-09-15
  7. ↑ Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch websites
  8. ↑ Daniel Pipes's website
  9. ↑ "The monopoly of force that is now exclusive to states will be challenged by armed subgroups. European societies will be divided along ethnic and religious lines. The education system will not succeed in grooming the youth to believe in a shared past, let alone a shared future. The European states will find themselves limiting civil liberties. Europeans will come to accept the de facto implementation of Sharia law in certain neighborhoods and even cities. The exploitation of the weak, women and children will be commonplace. Those who can afford to emigrate will do so. Instead of an ever-growing union in Europe, future generations may witness an ever-disintegrating one." in Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Europe's Immigration Quagmire, LA Times, 2006
  10. ↑ Melanie Phillips, Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within, Encounter, London, 2006
  11. ↑ Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, 2006 and 2008; It's the Demography, Stupid (2006-01-04); The future belongs to Islam (2006-10-20)
  12. ↑ including Gates of Vienna, Paul Belien's Brussels Journal, Free Republic, Front Page Magazine, Richard Landes's Eurabia article, Fjordman's The Eurabia Code article and Defeating Eurabia compilation (this web page list several web resources)
  13. ↑ ref: maybe [2], [3], [4], [5] [6]
  14. ↑ Waleed Aly, Hatred in a head count, The Age, 2007-02-19; see also Raphael Israeli's answer to australian media coverage, 2007-02-22
  15. ↑ [7]BBC, Islam-West rift widens, poll says. 21 January 2008
  16. ↑ for those who do, see especially "Eurabia represents a geo-political reality" and "Western Europe [...] future is Eurabia. Period.", Bat Ye'or quoted by Jamie Glazov, Eurabia, Front Page Magazine, 2004-09-21
  17. ↑ (French) manifesto in Le devoir de précaution
  18. ↑ (Dutch) Confrontatie, geen verzoening, de Volkskrant, 8 April 2006, copy here
  19. ↑ 2007-06-19, quoted by bigpicweblog.com, conference The collapse of Europe at Pepperdine University with americanfreedomalliance.org; see also "[Mark Steyn] argues for dissolving Europe's welfare" in Johann Hari, 'America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It' by Mark Steyn, The New Statesman, 2007-03-12, Bruce Bawer claiming that european "big-government, welfare-state social democracy" is a "kind of fundamentalism" in While Europe Slept interview with Bruce Bawer, Front Page Magazine, 2006-05-23;
  20. ↑ in 'America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It' by Mark Steyn
  21. ↑ Matt Carr, The Eurabian Nightmare[8]
  22. ↑ See also Randy McDonald, France, its Muslims, and the Future, 2004-04-13, Doug Saunders, The 'Eurabia' myth deserves a debunking, The Globe and Mail, 2008-09-20, Fewer differences between foreign born and Swedish born childbearing women, Statistics Sweden, 2008-11-03, Mary Mederios Kent, Do Muslims have more children than other women in western Europe?, Population Reference Bureau, prb.org, February 2008; for fertility of Muslims outside Europe, see the sentence "The dramatic decline in Iran's fertility provides a recent example of how strict Islamic practices can coexist with widespread use of family planning.", and (the articles) Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi and Mary Mederios Kent, Fertility Declining in the Middle East and North Africa, prb.org, April 2008, especially the figure 2, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Recent changes and the future of fertility in Iran, especially the figure 1;
  23. ↑ See also "Merely speaking of a 'Muslim community in France' can be misleading and inaccurate: like every immigrant population, Muslims in France exhibit strong cleavages based on the country of their origin, their social background, political orientation and ideology, and the branch or sect of Islam that they practice (when they do)." in Justin Vaisse, Unrest in France, November 2005, 2006-01-12
  24. ↑ See also Justin Vaïsse, La France et les musulmans: une politique étrangère sous influence?, April 2007 (French)
  25. ↑ Johann Hari, Amid all this panic, we must remember one simple fact - Muslims are, The Independent, London, 2006-08-21; see also "It is not an exaggeration to see in these wild conspiracy theories a mutation of Europe’s old, toxic anti-Semitism. What are Fallaci and Ye’or offering but the Protocols of the Elders of Muhammad?" in Johann Hari, Islam in the West, Dissent magazine, winter 2007;

Further reading

Books

Supporting

Critical

External links

Supporters

Skeptics

See also