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Drooling on the Pillow

Monday, February 28, 2005

The Islamification of Europe 

Via Bad Hair Blog.

Mark Steyn discusses the president's trip to Europe in terms of the changed and changing landscape as Islamism exerts an inexorable pressure on the EU.

Slowly, surely, the demographics will bring Europe to the point of having to make some decisions they are, apparently, unwilling to make.

It's good to remember that the major Arab states have been fighting a war with Islamism for fifty or sixty years. Even the net exporters of terrorism, such as Syria, Libya and, until recently, Iraq have brutally supressed various Islamic groups.

The other side of it is that they will aggresively pursue these groups only when they feel their satrapy is threatened. Otherwise, they are content to co-exist. As long as the terrorists refrain from commiting their depredations on home soil, money, intelligence and indulgence are theirs. Their usefulness against the West and, occasionally, other Arab states is the price they pay for the baleful eye of the U.S.

Bush's plan, of course, is to make the price prohibitive. It's obvious he's succeeded in getting the attention of Egypt, Syria and Iran, but the follow through is key. Keeping U.S. public opinion behind him is the determining factor. A quick decisive war was good, a messy, dangerous occupation almost drained the bank. An inspirational election bought him some more time and a good outcome in Lebanon, and, of course, most especially, progress between Israel and the Palestinians might give him all the time he needs.

What's interesting about the Steyn article is that it raises the question of whether, at some point in the not too distant future, the EU will have to decide whether to accept the same bargain the Islamists offered the Arab states and, if they do, will be be able to consider them allies in any sense of the word.

This seems to be a continuation of the fascinating debate between Steyn and Col. Austin Bay on whether a division between Old and New Europe is meaningful. This is something you rarely see on the left, an intelligent, orderly, respectful disagreement about fundamental principles.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:36 PM
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