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Newsweek
wants you to relax and forget about the jihad against Europe July 12, 2009 Go back to sleep, won't you? "Why Fears Of A
Muslim Takeover Are All Wrong: Analyzing the forecasts of an emerging
'Eurabia,' hostile to America and western values," by William Underhill
for Newsweek, from the July 20 issue (thanks to James): To listen to Europe's far right, it would be easy to
conclude that the continent is poised for another round of bitter conflict with
a centuries-old adversary. "Far right" -- thus Newsweek signals to
its enlightened, forward looking readers that they are not to think this way.
This is no new "bitter conflict with a centuries-old adversary." Only
the "far right" thinks there is. And we are not those benighted, neofascist
souls, now, are we? "The first Islamic invasion of Europe was
stopped at [the battle of] Poitiers in 732. The second was halted at the gates
of Vienna in 1683. Now we have to stop the current stealth invasion,"
argues Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom, which claims
that Islamic doctrine encourages terrorism. Yes, Wilders "claims" that. Of course all
enlightened Newsweek readers know that that isn't true. Wilders made it all up.
Never mind, for example, that in March 2009, five Muslims accused of helping
plot the September 11 attacks, including the notorious Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
wrote an “Islamic Response to the Government’s Nine Accusations.” In it they
quote the Qur'an to justify their jihad war against the American Infidels. “In
God’s book,” asserts the letter, “he ordered us to fight you everywhere we find
you, even if you were inside the holiest of all holy cities, The Mosque in
Mecca, and the holy city of Mecca, and even during sacred months. In God’s
book, verse 9 [actually verse 5], Al-Tawbah [the Qur'an’s 9th chapter]: Then
fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, and besiege
them and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush.” Never mind also that Osama bin Laden’s communiqués
have also quoted the Qur'an copiously. In his 1996 “Declaration of War against
the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places,” he quotes seven
Qur'an verses: 3:145; 47:4-6; 2:154; 9:14; 47:19; 8:72; and the notorious
“Verse of the Sword,” 9:5. Bin Laden began his October 6, 2002, letter to the
American people with two Qur'an quotations, both of a martial bent -- 22:39 and
4:76. One Muslim website wrote some time ago: “The truth
is that a Muslim who reads the Koran with devotion is determined to reach the
battlefield in order to attain the reality of Jihad. It is solely for this
reason that the Kufaar [unbelievers] conspire to keep the Muslims far away from
understanding the Koran, knowing that Muslims who understand the Koran will not
distance themselves from Jihad.” So it would appear that there are significant
numbers of Muslims -- since, after all, Al-Qaeda alone is a worldwide movement
-- who believe that Islam encourages terrorism. Maybe they're getting Islam
horribly wrong, as we hear claimed every day, but in any case it is they who
are finding in Islam justification for violence and terrorism. Non-Muslims like
Wilders are merely reporting on that fact. But never mind. Newsweek knows
better. Wilders is the one who makes this pernicious claim, and since he is
"far-right," he must be wrong. In fact, he is simply engaging in
"rabble-rousing": It's rabble-rousing stuff. But underlying Wilders's
polemic is an argument shared by many more mainstream right-leaning thinkers on
both sides of the Atlantic. Europe, its will sapped by secularism and
anything-goes tolerance, has allowed decades of mass immigration without
serious challenge. Too feeble to defend their own values, governments have been
ready to appease Muslim opinion and must expect the worst. The argument has
been gaining ground for some time—fed by alarmist and highly speculative
projections from writers like the Canadian Mark Steyn, author of the
bestselling America Alone—that immigration and high birthrates could mean that
Muslims will make up 40 percent of Europe's population by 2025. Similar and
very public warnings have come from American diplomat Timothy Savage, who
claimed that forecasts of a Muslim majority in Western Europe by midcentury
"may not be far off the mark" if present trends continue, which would
heighten the risk of conflict. The British historian Niall Ferguson has written
that "a youthful Muslim society to the south and east of the Mediterranean
is poised to colonize—the term is not too strong—a senescent Europe." And
the American journalist Christopher Caldwell forecasts that an
"anchored" and "confident" Islam looks likely to impose its
will on an "insecure" and "relativistic" European culture.
The gloomiest commentators, including Steyn and the conservative American
writer Tony Blankley, talk of an emerging "Eurabia" hostile to
American interests and in thrall to Islam.... See how Newsweek wants you to relax? They want to
make sure you don't take any of those writers seriously, and so Underhill has
filled that paragraph with code words to warn readers away from these people --
probably many of his casual left-leaning readers will find this magic working
upon them without their even realizing it's happening. Wilders is engaging in
"rabble-rousing" "polemic." And even "more mainstream"
thinkers who subscribe to the same views are "right-leaning." Steyn's
work is "alarmist and highly speculative." Timothy Savage
"claimed" that predictions of Muslim majorities in Western European
countries may be close to correct (but still wrong, evidently). Ferguson and
Caldwell get off without sly editorial digs, but the clipped quotations from
them, presented without the supporting evidence they adduce, sound, well,
alarmist and highly speculative. And Steyn (again) and Tony Blankley (who is --
gasp! -- a "conservative," a word that the mainstream media uses only
for bloodthirsty mullahs and other gargoyles) are "gloomiest" of all.
By these semaphores Underhill tells us that he
doesn't buy any of their analysis, and doesn't want you to, either. Underhill then presents some evidence of the
emerging Eurabia and the emerging resistance to it, only to sweep it all aside. But all this obscures a simple fact: the rise of a
Eurabia is predicated on limited and dubious evidence. A much-cited 2004 study
from the U.S. National Intelligence Council outlines a number of possible
scenarios. Its most aggressive is that the number of Muslims in Europe could
increase from roughly 20 million today—about 5 percent of the population—to 38
million by 2025. But that projection turns out to be attributed to
"diplomatic and media reporting as well as government, academic, and other
sources." In other words, it's all speculation based on speculation—and
even if it's accurate, it would still mean the number of Muslims will represent
just 8 percent of the European population, estimated by the EU to be 470
million in 2025. Indeed, if there is a surge ahead, its scale looks overstated.
"There is a quite deliberate exaggeration, as has often been pointed
out—but the figures are still being cited," says Jytte Klausen, an
authority on Islam in Europe at Boston's Brandeis University.... So relax. What can a tiny minority do? Never mind
that a small group of Bolsheviks was able to gain power in Russia and transform
the society utterly. Underhill has no time for historical analogies. [...] Fertility rates remain higher among Muslim
immigrants than among other Europeans, and Muslims may continue to arrive in
Europe in large numbers. But the alarmists assume that past patterns are sure
to hold. "The worst of the scaremongering is based on the assumption that
current behavior will continue," says Grace Davie, an expert on Europe and
Islam at the University of Exeter in Britain. See? It's all just "scaremongering." Never
mind that the concerns about Eurabia aren't solely based on demographics, but
upon an increasingly assertive Muslim population in Western Europe that refuses
to accept the governing authorities or secular society, and boasts openly about
its intention to impose Sharia upon the land as soon as it is able. [...] Moreover, the myth of Eurabia implies the
existence of a united Islam, a bloc capable of collective and potentially
dangerous action. The truth is that there are no powerful Muslim political
movements in Europe, either continentwide or at the national level, and the
divisions that separate Muslims worldwide, most obviously between Sunnis and
Shiites, are apparent in Europe as well. Each major nation in Europe has drawn
Muslim immigrants from distinct regions of the Islamic world, often former
colonies, with different traditions and outlooks. A British Muslim from
Pakistan would struggle to communicate with a French Muslim from Algeria. A
second-generation Muslim from Turkey living in Germany will have little in
common with a newly arrived Moroccan across the border in Belgium. Sharp
differences exist even within national frontiers. In Germany, more than one in
10 Muslims are Alawites, who aren't even recognized as coreligionists by the
more orthodox. Here again, this matters not a whit. The point is
not that all Muslims in Europe will work together, in a coordinated fashion, to
establish Sharia in Europe. It only need take some to do so, and some are
already working on that. Posted by Robert at July 12, 2009 4:46 AM Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this |
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+12 Vote up Vote down
KarshiKhanabad 58p · 1 day ago Newsweek magazine is completely dhimmified, like the
elites on both sides of the Atlantic who read its feelgood drivel. It
conveniently omits any reference to Muslim boasts about taking over Europe, and
makes no mention whatsoever of global Islamic terrorism. Newsweek is a worthless waste of trees. Reply 4 replies · active 17 hours ago +9 Vote up
Vote down billbonney 77p · 1 day ago I have no knowledge of this bloke William Underhill,
other than the fact he comes across as a total dhimmi prat. Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +11 Vote up
Vote down flowerknife_us 72p · 1 day ago Newsweek needs a name change-Opinionweak. Print some Prophet Cartoons, see if opinions change.
Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +15 Vote up
Vote down djrz 71p · 1 day ago /sacasm Oh, I believe EVERYTHING Newsweek says. So I'll just
ignore when I read about "Asians" raping teenaged girls and
grandmothers in the UK. I'll just sing "Kum-ba-ya" holding up the
peace sign when I hear about the Taliban beheading just about anyone. I'll hand
out flowers to Muslims demonstrating with signs that say "KILL THE
JEWS" and "DEATH TO THOSE INSULTING THE PROPHET." I'll discount the hundreds of Muslim leaders of
countries, highly respected clerics and leaders of self-proclaimed jihadi armed
forces who claim that all Muslims must work for the destruction of all
non-Muslim groups. I'll reject the evidence that HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS
of non-Muslims have been KILLED in the name of Allah over 1400 years, and NO
LEADING MUSLIM has EVER apologized for any of those killed. I'll let my children be KIDNAPPED by pedophile
Muslims to be "converted" and raped. It's the neighborly thing to do.
After all, what is more important: Freedom or Islamic
slavery? /end sarcasm Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +5 Vote up
Vote down ddoggma 50p · 1 day ago Newsweek and the others are trash, that I would not,
wipe my ass with. Reply 2 replies · active 1 day ago +8 Vote up
Vote down wopette 74p · 1 day ago Newsweek rag is only meant for people like Underhill
who wear rose colored glasses..They don't want to know the truth about Islam,
it makes them feel safer to believe that "terrorists" are just this
small group of misunderstood Islamic zealots....As if their denial of what
Islam is will save them in the end..Shame on Newsweek for embracing the revised
history Islam offers... Reply 2 replies · active 1 day ago +7 Vote up
Vote down MrFitnah 55p · 1 day ago This is what you get when you spend millions to
promote a positive image of Islam. Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +7 Vote up
Vote down HenrikRClausen 63p · 1 day ago There is no grandiose "European Far Right"
movement. There are, of course, concerned citizens who speak
up against what they see as wrong, but it borders on 'hate crime' that media
and politicians attempt to stigmatize these citizens as 'extremists'. We want democracy back. Mainstream Media, such as
Newsweek, can go broke for all I care. Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +10 Vote up
Vote down duh_swami 107p · 1 day ago Mahoundian immigrants may come from different
places, but they all meet at the mosque... This is an 'opinion piece' and most of Underhill's
opinions are way off base...He is basically lying, and not doing a very good
job at it... Reply 1 reply · active 1 day ago +12 Vote up
Vote down toastandmarmalade 68p · 1 day ago Islam is the only religion that needs a professional
marketing department ......and we all know why Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +3 Vote up
Vote down MrFitnah 55p · 1 day ago He went to oxford not Georgetown which was my first
guess Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +2 Vote up
Vote down persikas1 52p · 1 day ago So , 8-10% muslims by 2025 is nothing to worry about
. muslims usually have about 3 times as many children
as the locals , or so I've read - at least these are the figures or France. At 10% , this means one in 3 babies is muslim - as
this will increase exponentially , this means one in two babies 20 years after
that. i.e. 10% in 2025 means the majorty of children born
in , let's say 2026 , will be muslim. Which , in turn means , a substantial muslim
majority about 2050 - bye-bye Europe ! Reply 7 replies · active 1 day ago +7 Vote up
Vote down alleycat87 60p · 1 day ago That last paragraph is particularly off-kilter,
where he says that we shouldn't be worried about Muslim immigration because
there are many different kinds of Muslims from different countries - this
doesn't make for a more peaceful society in any way, because they fight with
each other as well as non-Muslims. Just my 2 cents... Reply 2 replies · active 1 day ago +2 Vote up
Vote down persikas1 52p · 1 day ago sorry , it should read the majority of children born
in , let's say , 2046 will be muslims and a substantial majority maybe 2060 . Reply 2 replies · active 1 day ago +3 Vote up
Vote down gozan303 67p · 1 day ago Jay: Man, we ain't got time for this cover-up
bullshit! I don't know whether or not you've forgotten, but there's an
Arquillian Battle Cruiser that's about to... Kay:"There's always an Arquillian Battle
Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to
wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people
can get on with their happy lives is that they Do... Not... Know about it!
" --Scene from Men In Black See, us workaday, simple folks are panicky
irrational animals, and must be mollified about all potential threats to our
civilization. They exist, to be sure, but there are smart, edumacated fellers
behind the scenes taking care of all that stuff, so we just have to keep the
economy going by living our happy little lives of blissful consumerism. What
more could we want, as long as we've got climate control, an LCD TV and an
Xbox, right? Just leave all that technical stuff like immigration, foreign
affairs and lawmaking to our upstanding elected officials. After all we pay
their salaries! Now gimme another Xanax and wake me up when there's a real crisis
happening. I'll be checking my viocemail, honest. --what the MSM wants from us Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +6 Vote up
Vote down BostonPatriot 68p · 1 day ago Again, this is a classic example of lefties looking
at the Muslim immigrants purely from their Western, materialistic, secular
world view. Because they won't be an ABSOLUTE majority in numbers, and because
they aren't united in a single political movement,and because they're not all
terrorists, then they can't be a serious threat. That's pathetically narrow and
shallow thinking. It's ALREADY reached a point where the Muslim community can
impose elements of Sharia onto Western society----the prohibition against
pictures depicting Muhammed has already been forced on Europe, and they've
accepted it. Also, the bedrock of that author's argument is that things like
immigration, increase in Muslim populations as a percentage of the overall
population, and integration will probably take a dramatic turn in a different
direction in the future---but that's largely based on his wishful thinking. I
did not see anything in his piece to argue against the prediction that at least
some countries in Europe are going to face large-scale ethnic conflicts with
their Muslim populations. Reply 1 reply · active 1 day ago +6 Vote up
Vote down Thomas_H 74p · 1 day ago William Underhill is a CAIR-approved expert on who
is, and is not, an expert on Islam. That is why he confidently puts in the expert
category Jytte Klausen ( "authority on Islam in Europe") and Grace
Davie ("an expert on Europe and Islam"), but not, for example,
"prophet" Mohammet, Osama Bin Laden, Khomeini and the hord of learned
imams and mullahs who daily preach and explain to countless millions of moslems
their duty to impose Islam on our planet. Now what does Jytte Klausen and Grace Davie (and
Juan Cole, Karen Armstrong, John Esposito etc...etc...) have, except not being
moslems, that make them greater authority then authentic and thorougly proved
moslems? Reply 2 replies · active 1 day ago +6 Vote up
Vote down proxywar 59p · 1 day ago part 2: Moreover, they totally disregard the fact that these
islamic teachings go on in muslims countries around the world, as if these
muslim countries don't follow Islam properly? As if a western-liberal who
converted to Islam does? Point being the Quran is riddled with contradictions
one can litterally make it say whatever one wants. However, the point is in
muslims nations these pratices go on just as our western scholars have
documented. So how can I go back to sleep when stealth jihad is already HERE? Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +3 Vote up
Vote down Rogster 54p · 1 day ago I expect that most people will be misled by the
rhetorical 'tricks', that Robert draws attention to, because it requires a
strong/inquiring mind to see through them. It is almost like apologists have
their own language, of certain 'code words' that, when carefully inserted, can
make even the most egregious evidence/claims, appear preposterous. It is the
language of those who disable their opponent, in order to save themselves from
ever having to confront their opponent's evidence/claims - As if all you have
to do is say "It's controversial, it's scare-mongering, it's far-right,
it's a myth, it's divisive, it's solely out of hatred, etc", and then you
win the debate, because you've instantly set your opponent on the defensive,
and charged them with so many 'crimes', that they'll waste the entire debate,
having to refute the accusations, rather than actually debate about the topic. Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +9 Vote up
Vote down anonamustafa 60p · 1 day ago "The truth is that there are no powerful Muslim
political movements in Europe...." This is proof the guy is clueless. ISLAM IS A POLITICAL MOVEMENT YOU DIPSH!T!!! Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +4 Vote up
Vote down KafirNonbeliever 24p · 1 day ago Of course, Wilders is correct that Islam is a
scourge. However, his statement last week that his party wanted to kick Romania
and Bulgaria out of the EU, shows that he is truly extreme. Let me be clear, he
is correct that neither was truly ready for EU membership in 2007. In all such
cases, membership is political. Both nations bear the scars of hundreds of
years of Ottoman occupation with such effects as stymied development, the very
thing Wilders should care about. However, it is also true that several other
countries that joined the EU over the years have not been ready. Under the
standard that Wilders seems to be employing, it is not even certain that Italy
would make the cut for EU membership today if it were a candidate. Iceland and
Ireland would certainly not be acceptable today. If it's gypsies that Wilders
doesn't like, then he should be honest. He should know that they are not
popular in either Romania or Bulgaria. Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +5 Vote up
Vote down IronGauntlet 77p · 1 day ago Let the left do what they want. It'll result in
their own demise But they should not be allowed to drag the world
down with them. Reply 2 replies · active 23 hours ago +6 Vote up
Vote down Rogster 54p · 1 day ago A 10% Muslim population, is the point at which the
Muslim population becomes almost impossible to reverse, without severe social
unrest, because the moment any politician attempts to reverse the population
trend, those Muslims will take to the streets and riot. If a few thousand can cause chaos in a major city,
like Paris, then what would happen if 10% of the country's entire Muslim
population, decided to take to the streets - It would overwhelm the army and
the police force... and that's just 10%! For countries which have much higher percentages
(eg. 40%) of Muslims, a reversal in that population trend, would almost
certainly result in civil war and bloodshed on an immense scale. It should be incumbent on all non-Muslim states, to
ensure that they act 'before' Muslims increase to 10% of the population. But then, it is interesting to see what happens when
an anti-Islam politician, threatens to gain political power, in a non-Muslim
country - http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2285611.ec... ...encouraging information :) Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago +7 Vote up
Vote down louella 48p · 1 day ago If Europe doesn't see her way back to Catholicism
then it will be Islamification all the way. There is nothing else that will
withstand these demographics and a seemingly deliberate policy of Islamic
immigration. Western Secular values certainly don't stand a
chance against these. In fact these unsuccessful vague values seem to be the
gateway by which Islam has infiltrated what was once successfully defended as
Christendom! Reply 4 replies · active 1 day ago +12 Vote up
Vote down BostonPatriot 68p · 1 day ago Reading the piece again, I had to laugh at one
part---even the dhimmis let their true beliefs slip out a bit. The author goes
out of his way to argue that many Muslims are not religious. Hmmm.....now why
would the author see that as a positive sign unless, deep down, he truly
believed that Islam was not compatible with Western democracy? Reply 0 replies · active 1 day ago http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026902.php |
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