http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/091115-770715-europe-struggles-to-maintain-identity-as-muslim-population-soars.htm
IBD Editorials
Can Europe Stay Europe After Muslim Migrant Surge? Doubtful
09/11/2015 06:38 PM ET
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Western Civilization: European nations have been besieged by Mideast
refugees, but never fear: Saudi Arabia says it will help out — by
building 200 new mosques on the continent. Can Europe survive this
demographic wave?
The European Union is bracing for as many as 800,000 mostly Muslim
refugees arriving from the chaos in the Middle East this year, mainly
Syria, Iraq and Eritrea.
And it may be just the beginning. Can the EU withstand such a
religio-demographic earthquake? Its failure to enforce any concept of
borders isn't a good sign.
True enough, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have taken in 3 million
refugees. But the Gulf States, in particular Saudi Arabia, have said
no. They emphatically reject Western-style open borders.
EU borders have ceased to have any meaning. Under the Dublin rules,
the EU's asylum and refugee law, it's the responsibility of the
country in which refugees first set foot to take care of them.
Overwhelmed, nations closest to the Mideast or on the Mediterranean —
Greece, Hungary, Italy, France — are passing the refugees on. No more
borders. EU bureaucrats and politicians are panicking. In his "State
of the European Union" speech last Wednesday, European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker admitted the EU "is not in a good
state," in large part because of the flood of refugees.
His solution? A "permanent relocation mechanism" to spread refugees
more evenly among EU nations.
Nice try, but it avoids the real question: Can a civilization whose
population is on the verge of decline fill its demographic void by
taking in hundreds of thousands of culturally incompatible people from
elsewhere and still maintain its own unique culture and identity?
The answer, of course, is no. And no, that isn't some kind of
Islamophobic hate fantasy. It's simple reality.
Europe's millennia-old civilization is in danger of being erased by a
human tide having few things in common with it — not religion, not
law, not language, not rights, not beliefs about the role of women in
society.
Assimilation offers little hope. Parts of France — especially its
notorious banlieues outside major cities like Paris — are virtual
no-go zones. London's are little better. Italy, Germany, the
Netherlands and Scandinavia all have large, unassimilated Muslim
populations.
Those populations are growing. Europe isn't. As far back as 2011, the
Pew Forum noted that Europe's Muslim population was expected to almost
double from 30 million in 1990 to 57 million in 2030.
That's surely now an underestimate. Add to this the inevitability of
jihadists slipping across porous EU borders, and Europe is in deep
trouble.
Anger is welling up, and nationalist parties are spreading across the
Continent. As 20th century history showed, Europe doesn't react well
to social upheaval.
Can Europe survive the coming storm? Doubtful.
Received on Sat Sep 12 2015 - 12:56:37 EDT