It is not only Europe's failure, but Europe's conscious decision -- as Bat Ye'or demonstrates in the forthcoming Eurabia. The Europeans are reaping what they have sown for thirty years. From Newsday, with thanks to Nicolei:
But beyond the outpouring of rage, "the Dutch Sept. 11," [the murder of van Gogh] as it is referred to here, has spurred extraordinary soul-searching about immigration, identity and the threat of radical Islamists. It has come to symbolize European vulnerability - not just to terrorism, but also to the erosion of foundational values like tolerance and free speech."After the attacks on America, we were very shocked, but we thought it was far away and it would never happen to Europe, let alone the Netherlands," said Geert Wilders, a right-wing member of Parliament under death threat after calling for a five-year halt to non-European immigration and the deportation of radical imams.
In many ways, Van Gogh's murder has held up a mirror to Europe, and many are frightened by the reflection: a culturally and religiously polarized continent that is as vulnerable to jihadists from within as from without.
The 26-year-old murder suspect, Mohammed Bouyeri, was a homegrown jihadi, one of thousands of young Muslim men educated in Dutch schools, speaking perfect Dutch, but living on the margins of society. He was part of a cell here that police call the Hofstad group, which included two Islamic converts born to an African-American serviceman and a Dutch mother, as well as a Moroccan translator for AIVD, the Dutch intelligence agency.
Many fear that other disaffected young Muslims who are born and educated here, and who identify with Islamist grievances around the world, may be ready recruits.
Segregated neighborhoods
And concerns about terrorism also have spotlighted the failure here and across Europe to integrate a large and fast-growing Muslim minority. In Amsterdam, the most popular name for a newborn boy is Mohammed, and a majority of residents will be Muslim within 10 to 15 years. Yet most Muslim children attend largely segregated schools, participate in their own sports clubs and live in neighborhoods that are increasingly separate islands with high rates of joblessness and crime.
"For far too long, we have said we had a multicultural society and everyone would simply find each other," said immigration minister Rita Verdonk, also targeted in the note left by Van Gogh's killer. "We were too naive in thinking people would exist in society together."
The same debate that has preoccupied Britain, France, Germany and Italy is now raging here: How does a liberal democracy defend an open society against those who don't share those values? And how does it integrate a fast-growing Muslim population in a society with very little experience of multiethnic identity - where American-style notions of hyphenated identities like Muslim-American or Italian-American, for instance, simply don't exist.
The perpetrators, the hatemongers, the hypocrites and fanatics point the finger at us, their hosts!
"We demand..." and so on...and so on..."We demand freedom for our intolerance, for our barbaric customs, it is our god given right to have 4 wives and to have 7 sons with each one of them like our prophet!
And you, you miserable infidels should pay for it, child care, welfare, income support...
If I had the means to pull the plug I would have done it long ago. If it was only that simple!
The perpetrators, the hatemongers, the hypocrites and fanatics point the finger at us, their hosts!
"We demand..." and so on...and so on..."We demand freedom for our intolerance, for our barbaric customs, it is our god given right to have 4 wives and to have 7 sons with each one of them like our prophet!
And you, you miserable infidels should pay for it, child care, welfare, income support...
If I had the means to pull the plug I would have done it long ago. If it was only that simple!
You're right, terminator.
Besides, the more pertinent question, how does free and open society defend itself against a threat this insidious (and inside as well) while preserving its open character?
Methinks time will come , sooner rather than later me thinks, when we'll have to temporarily suspend democatic niceties and takeon the jihadi gasholes in our midst in a whatever-it-takes action.
Remember, Survival trumps everything and the constituion isn't a suicide pact.
Nothing too new here but I found some interesting anti-dhimmi articles in http://www.brucebawer.com/.
Articles are
http://www.brucebawer.com/fortuyn.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0630/p09s01-coop.html
http://www.brucebawer.com/tolerating.htm
I am encouraged to see people with all shades of opinion agreeing with the views expressed here.
You don't integrate people who don't want to be integrated. It's an impossible task. We've covered this subject just recently, and it comes down to Islam doesn't integrate because it is a monoculture that believes only in swallowing up other cultures or subjugating them. It has no respect for other cultures. Only hatred.
In the past, people have found each other in multicultural societies. Not with Islam. If second generation Muslims are rabidly fundamental to the point where they feel they have the right to murder people on the street, then that's a big clue right there. Second generation immigrants in the past (like me) integrated, blended in, no problem. We see this is not the case with Islam.
Most Muslims are in the West to outbreed us and take over. It's war.
Is the Rijksmuseum burning?
Feralee is right. Immigration is not the problem, Muslim refusal to integrate is the problem. Indian, Hindu immigrants and their descendants are the most successful ethnic group in the UK. A recent survey showed that Indian (Hindu) immigrants and their children are more successful – in terms of degrees per head- than the native English population. Yet Pakistani Immigrants and their children are the most unsuccessful immigrant group in the country (more unsuccessful than any other ethnic group surveyed). So how come that people with Indian background have no problem getting degrees, and good jobs, how come they are so much better integrated? They aren’t Christians, they aren’t white, sometime they ware strange clothes, and they eat strange food just like the Muslims, yet they are not discriminated against? Could the problem be the refusal of the Muslim population to integrate?
How come that the Algerian Jews who immigrated to France after 1948 are incredibly successful group, they and their descendants are highly educated and prosperous, while the Algerian Muslims who came at the same time are largely alienated? The two groups came at the same time, and both groups came with very little possessions, and both groups moved into public housing, but the Algerian Jews moved into nicer neighbourhoods long ago, while the Muslims still live in the same ghettos. In France too Muslims are far les successful than any other immigrant group. France have integrated large number of Russian immigrants in the beginning of the 20th century as well, and they are well and truly part of the French society now.
The argument that Europe doesn’t do enough to integrate these people doesn’t hold water in the light of the many other groups which are well integrated and successful.
Much better example of successful integration than the Jews of Algeria, who were batted back and forth across the straits that separate Europe from North Africa a couple of times due to political conditions -- the Falasha of Ethiopia.
They lived for centuries in such isolation in their north African homeland (where they founded what was Africa's oldest university) that they thought they were the last Jews left on the planet and knew nothing of mechanized flight when they were put on board the airplanes that took them to their new home. In the 30 years since, they fully and successfully integrated into Israeli society, which is every bit as modern and democratic as any western European nation, if not more so.
Waterdragon52 is right, Israel is the model of how to integrate people from all over the world. It wasn’t easy, but they worked very hard, and integrated many different groups into the Israeli society. I don’t know of any specific ethnic group in Israel, which would be alienated as a group.
Gloria
An excellent point, and if I might add to your list of immigrant success stories in the UK the Sikhs, who also performed well in universities and the professions and have integrated well, and the Chinese Buddhists. The examples of these communities single handedly blow out of the water the Islamic chant that British/European/American societies are to blame for their estrangement. that is why we should keep pounding away at this point. If the Hindus/Sikhs/Buddhists/Jews can succeed DESPITE whatever disadvantages they face, why cant the Muslims?
We need to say this over and over again to show the decrepitude of their arguments, especially the cringing left wing "Guardian" types who self flagellate as soon as a Muslim with a chip on their shoulder and a heart full of self pity starts whining about the prejudice they face, when the reason for their relative lack of success and integration lies within themselves.
To anyone who wants to know firsthand the writing on the wall of what is happening today, I suggest a quick look at the page:
>www. sterlingtimes.co.uk./powell_press.htm
You don't 'integrate' a brain tumor, you isolate it, and expell it.
Islam's teachings are a hostile parasite that replaces it host.
The idiots in the West who welcomed this-if living- should be shamed as suicidal imbeciles- and the graves of those who brought it about (through relaxing of immigration rules) should have photos of those beheaded left on the tombstones to thank them for their plan.
'Cheap labor' will be the death of Europe, and the U.S. when its true cost comes due.
A coffee filter hat for everyone male and a chador for those half-members of the species called women (whose hand you dare not shake).
Not wishing to integrate is one thing. What we are witnessing in Europe right now is another matter entirely.
Orthodox Jews, Mennonites, Hutterites and other religious sects live rather separate communal lives all over the world and manage to do it without imposing their lifestyles on their hosts' respective communities or milking their social welfare systems for all they are worth.
From the Times Online:
"Stoned to death... why Europe is starting to lose its faith in Islam"
"Days before she was due to be married, Ghofrane Haddaoui, 23, refused the advances of a teenage boy and paid with her life. Lured to waste ground near her home in Marseilles, the Tunisian-born Frenchwoman was stoned to death, her skull smashed by rocks hurled by at least two young men, according to police.
Although the circumstances of the murder are not clear, the horrific “lapidation” of the young Muslim stoked a French belief that the country can no longer tolerate the excesses of an alien culture in its midst.
A few days ago, pop celebrities joined 2,000 people in a march through Marseilles denouncing violence against women, particularly in the immigrant-dominated housing estates. The protest against Islamic “obscurantism” and the “fundamentalism that imprisons women” was led by a group of Muslim women who call themselves Ni Putes ni Soumises (Neither Whores nor Submissive)..."
full story at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1387077,00.html
waterdragon52-
"Not wishing to integrate"- as in your examples of Orthodox Jews, Hutterites, The Amish, et al.
is only NOT a problem when their numbers are small. Or if they make themselves impotent by rules which consign them to pre-Technological Revolution levels. Or when they want to remain a small, 'Elect' group, sneering at the majority of Fallen Losers (you and I?).
I have no great respect for their selective antiquarianisms or their "We Are the True Chosen" smugness, but, as long as they can't threaten the populace at large, they are tourist attractions, who tie up traffic on the way home from work, at worst.
But, when they get Power, like their Technologically-welcoming Islamic brethen-in Absolutist-Intoxication, all bets are off.
Then they are not harmless and/or quaint immigrants but the Fifth Column (aided by their lackeys in the Leftist Press, Law and self-hating members of various "amnesty/asylum/broherhood/repartations for-the-sins-of-colonialism" groups).
God help us if they succeed in convincing enough dupes that they are LIKE the Amish or Hassidim.
WE will then be the tourist attraction. Behind nice barbed wire fences, festooned with signs in Arabic curlicues reading:
"DO NOT SPIT ON THE INFIDELS- THEY SEEM TO LIKE IT"
*** *** *** ***
In remembrance of:
"We spit on you, and you think it is a Spring shower.
-Theo Van Gogh. (describing how a Muslim sees his treatment of Infidels.)
Muslims do not ever "integrate". They merely interleave. They self-organize into poverty stricken enclaves that eventually become "no-go" zones. Islam truly is a social equivalent of malignant cancer. Like a tumor in the body, it deceives the immune system of its host into believing that it is benign. It is the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing, a destructive political, economic, social and cultural ideology posing as a "religion". It is welcomed into the society of the host as if it was any other "religion" known to its victim. Once inside the host it metastasizes and grows tumors throughout the host society. At first it is an annoyance, but then one day, without warning to the host, one or many of these tumors achieve a critical mass. The body itself then begins to die. Having killed its host, the cancer must then seek out another because it cannot sustain itself.
Islamic countries, without exception, all fail to feed themselves, as the foundation of the Islamic economic system is war booty and slavery. So they must always strike out in offensive jihad in order to survive. It has always has been this way and it always will be this way. It is the way of the Bedouin. It is all they know. Even at the height of the now defunct Islamic empire, foreign goods were diffused throughout the empire, not by trade, but by continuous internal plunder. Islam is an ideology that does not scale up well from any social construct more sophisticated than the desert tribes from which it sprang. It is a 7th century jinn that from time to time escapes from its bottle. It is now the hapless duty of the present generation to cram it back in.
So we all agree you don't integrate Islam into modern, free societies. So what to do about the mess we have in Europe? I'm feeling guilty about being so negative and cynical about the subject. I love Europe. It's part of my culture, my background, my soul. I hate to see this happen to it. Like watching a family member get slowly eaten up by cancer.
Europe needs to grow some balls basically. It needs to first shut up the yapping traps of the self-loathing, self-destructive loonie left who fight only for Islam's rights while subverting Europe's rights. It needs to set some ground rules. None of this airy-fairy, people will find themselves and we'll all skip through the daisies in multicultural bliss nonsense.
I've offered the same advice for many months now at this site, and now, for a change, let me ask you: "What do you think is an effective plan to educate the normal person in Europe and The West about the nature of Islam? What very practical thing that you can hold in your hand, what concrete acheivement can you point to at the end of the day like you would to an employer or a ciemt and say "This is what I did today," that being something you deserve to be paid for because it's a legitimate accomplishment? I'm happy to do anything to help the cause, within reason. Post a suggestion. Let me know.
sonofwalker, I have finally decided how I'm going to handle this, at least for now. I have composed a one page flyer listing Islam's most revolting tenets and practices, accentuating common muslim beliefs, rituals, and history. It is brief, concise, and graphic. The heading is in bold print:
PROTECT YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY, AND YOUR WAY OF LIFE. LEARN ABOUT ISLAM AND WHY MUSLIMS ARE IN AMERICA.
At the end of the page I listed ten websites, JihadWatch included, for reference and research.
I tried to make simple, comprehensible statements that anybody can read and understand, without mitigating their gravity. My goal is to encourage and inspire people to investigate and learn for themselves what Islam is all about.
Personally, I associate people who stand in parking lots handing out flyers with shysters, beggars, or religious fanatics. So I contacted ministers and priests at twelve churches and they agreed to let me place my flyers in the foyers of their churches.
I actually contacted fifteen churches but three ministers refused my request. Two of them said they would seek permission from higher authorities and get back to me.
Twelve churches doesn't seem like much of an impact, but it took three weeks to get appointments, meet the ministers, get the flyers printed, and get them to the churches.
One very encouraging note: one of the ministers called me this morning and told me to bring more flyers! I left over 100 there last week, so I feel like I actually accomplished something.
As time permits, I will continue distributing flyers in churches for now. After the first of the year, I might try to expand my horizons.
susanp....Congratulations, you've risked a lot of flack in even approaching the churches, keep it up.
I was talking to a member of staff of a Euoro MP yesterday (who visits JW ) and he asked if a flyer like you have created might help and I said yes it most certainly would.
I guess the only way to "wake up" the majority to this leech that is sucking our nations dry, is to circulate this type of message. There are so many who don't have computers and even many that do are still totally unaware of what is happening.
Because for so many "non surfers" their only daily dose of deception comes from the TV and newspapers, (all of whom are complicit in the myth,) life goes on as normal for them.
An uprising of the masses is the only way to flatten the PC do gooders and our governments and that is going to take some organising, and unfortunately advertising "the plan" on the WWW is informing the enemy, who no doubt will take the earliest and every opportunity to scupper it.