| They inhabit self-imposed ghettoes, subject to | | | | Muslim Council.Both Vladimir Putin, Russia's president |
| derision and worse, the perennial targets of far-right | | | | and Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow's mayor, now take the |
| thugs and populist politicians of all persuasions. They | | | | trouble to greet the capital's one million Muslims on |
| are mostly confined to menial jobs. They are accused | | | | the occasion of their Feast of Sacrifice. They also |
| of spreading crime, terrorism and disease, of being | | | | actively solicit the votes of the nationalist and elitist |
| backward and violent, of refusing to fit in.Their | | | | Muslims of the industrialized Volga - mainly the Tatars, |
| religion, atavistic and rigid, insists on ritual slaughter | | | | Bashkirs and Chuvash. Even the impoverished, |
| and male circumcision. They rarely mingle socially or | | | | much-detested and powerless Muslims of the |
| inter-marry. Most of them - though born in European | | | | northern Caucasus - Chechens, Circassians and |
| countries - are not allowed to vote. Brown-skinned | | | | Dagestanis - have benefited from this newfound |
| and with a marked foreign accent, they are subject | | | | awareness of their electoral power.Though divided by |
| to police profiling and harassment and all manner of | | | | their common creed - Shiites vs. Sunnites vs. |
| racial discrimination.They are the new Jews of Europe | | | | Wahabbites and so on - the Muslims of Europe are |
| - its Muslim minorities.Muslims - especially Arab youths | | | | united in supporting the Palestinian cause and in |
| from North Africa - are, indeed, disproportionately | | | | opposing the Iraq war. This - and post-colonial guilt |
| represented in crime, including hate crime, mainly | | | | feelings, especially manifest in France and Britain - go |
| against the Jews. Exclusively Muslim al-Qaida cells | | | | a long way toward explaining Germany's |
| have been discovered in many West European | | | | re-discovered pacifistic spine and France's anti-Israeli |
| countries. But this can be safely attributed to | | | | (not to say anti-Semitic) tilt.Moreover, the Muslims |
| ubiquitous and trenchant long-term unemployment | | | | have been playing an important economic role in the |
| and to stunted upward mobility, both social and | | | | continent since the early 1960s. Europe's postwar |
| economic due largely to latent or expressed | | | | miracle was founded on these cheap, plentiful and |
| racism.Moreover, the stereotype is wrong. The | | | | oft-replenished Gastarbeiter - "guest workers". |
| incidence of higher education and skills is greater | | | | Objective studies have consistently shown that |
| among Muslim immigrants than in the general | | | | immigrants contribute more to their host economies - |
| population - a phenomenon known as "brain drain". | | | | as consumers, investors and workers - than they |
| Europe attracts the best and the brightest - | | | | ever claw back in social services and public goods. |
| students, scholars, scientists, engineers and | | | | This is especially true in Europe, where an ageing |
| intellectuals - away from their destitute, politically | | | | population of early retirees has been relying on the |
| dysfunctional and backward homelands.The | | | | uninterrupted flow of pension contributions by |
| Economist surveys the landscape of friction and | | | | younger laborers, many of them immigrants.Business |
| withdrawal:"Indifference to Islam has turned first to | | | | has been paying attention to this emerging market. |
| disdain, then to suspicion and more recently to | | | | British financial intermediaries - such as the West |
| hostility ... (due to images of) petro-powered sheikhs, | | | | Bromwich Building Society - have recently introduced |
| Palestinian terrorists, Iranian ayatollahs, mass | | | | "Islamic" (interest-free) mortgages. According to |
| immigration and then the attacks of September 11th, | | | | market research firm, Datamonitor, gross advances in |
| executed if not planned by western-based Muslims | | | | the UK alone could reach $7 billion in 2006 - up from |
| and succored by an odious regime in Afghanistan ... | | | | $60 million today. The Bank of England is in the |
| Muslims tend to come from poor, rural areas; most | | | | throes of preparing regulations to accommodate the |
| are ill-educated, many are brown. They often | | | | pent-up demand.Yet, their very integration, however |
| encounter xenophobia and discrimination, sometimes | | | | hesitant and gradual, renders the Muslims in Europe |
| made worse by racist politicians. They speak the | | | | vulnerable to the kind of treatment the old continent |
| language of the wider society either poorly or not at | | | | meted out to its Jews before the holocaust. Growing |
| all, so they find it hard to get jobs. Their children | | | | Muslim presence in stagnating job markets within |
| struggle at school. They huddle in poor districts, often | | | | recessionary economies inevitably generated a |
| in state-supplied housing ... They tend to withdraw | | | | backlash, often cloaked in terms of Samuel |
| into their own world, (forming a) self-sufficient, | | | | Huntington's 1993 essay in Foreign Affairs, "Clash of |
| self-contained community."This self-imposed | | | | Civilizations".Even tolerant Italy was affected. Last |
| segregation has multiple dimensions. Clannish behavior | | | | year, the Bologna archbishop, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, |
| persists for decades. Marriages are still arranged - | | | | cast Islam as incompatible with Italian culture. The |
| reluctant brides and grooms are imported from the | | | | country's prime minister suggested, in a visit to Berlin |
| motherland to wed immigrants from the same region | | | | two years ago, that Islam is an inherently inferior |
| or village. The "parallel society", in the words of a | | | | civilization.Oriana Fallaci, a prominent journalist, |
| British government report following the Oldham riots | | | | published last year an inane and foul-mouthed diatribe |
| two years ago, extends to cultural habits, religious | | | | titled "The Rage and the Pride" in which she accused |
| practices and social norms.Assimilation and integration | | | | Muslims of "breeding like rats", "shitting and pissing" |
| has many enemies.Remittances from abroad are an | | | | (sic!) everywhere and supporting Osama bin-Laden |
| important part of the gross national product and | | | | indiscriminately.Young Muslims reacted - by further |
| budgetary revenues of countries such as Bangladesh | | | | radicalizing and by refusing to assimilate - to both |
| and Pakistan. Hence their frantic efforts to maintain | | | | escalating anti-Islamic rhetoric in Europe and the |
| the cohesive national and cultural identity of the | | | | "triumphs" of Islam elsewhere, such as the revolution |
| expats. DITIB is an arm of the Turkish government's | | | | in Iran in 1979. Tutored by preachers trained in the |
| office for religious affairs. It discourages the | | | | most militant Islamist climates in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, |
| assimilation or social integration of Turks in Germany. | | | | Somalia, Pakistan and Iran, praying in mosques |
| Turkish businesses - newspapers, satellite TV, foods, | | | | financed by shady Islamic charities - these |
| clothing, travel agents, publishers - thrive on | | | | youngsters are amenable to recruiters from every |
| ghettoization.There is a tacit confluence of interests | | | | fanatical grouping.The United Kingdom suffered some |
| between national governments, exporters and Islamic | | | | of the worst race riots in half a century in the past |
| organizations. All three want Turks in Germany to | | | | two years. France is terrorized by an unprecedented |
| remain as Turkish as possible. The more nostalgic and | | | | crime wave emanating from the banlieux - the |
| homebound the expatriate - the larger and more | | | | decrepit, predominantly Muslim, housing estates in |
| frequent his remittances, the higher his consumption | | | | suburbia. September 11 only accelerated the inevitable |
| of Turkish goods and services and the more prone | | | | conflict between an alienated minority and hostile |
| he is to resort to religion as a determinant of his | | | | authorities throughout the continent. Recent changes |
| besieged and fracturing identity.Muslim numbers are | | | | in European - notably British - legislation openly profile |
| not negligible. Two European countries have Muslim | | | | and target Muslims.This is a remarkable turnaround. |
| majorities - Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania. Others - | | | | Europe supported the Muslim Bosnian cause against |
| in both Old Europe and its post-communist east - | | | | the Serbs, Islamic Chechnya against Russia, the |
| harbor sizable and growing Islamic minorities. Waves | | | | Palestinians against the Israelis and Muslim Albanian |
| of immigration and birth rates three times as high as | | | | insurgents against both Serbs and Macedonians. Nor |
| the indigenous population increase their share of the | | | | was this consistent pro-Islamic orientation a |
| population in virtually every European polity - from | | | | novelty.Britain's Commission for Racial Equality which |
| Russia to Macedonia and from Bulgaria to Britain. One | | | | caters mainly to the needs of Muslims, was formed |
| in seven Russians is Muslim - over 20 million | | | | 37 years ago. Its Foreign Office has never wavered |
| people.According to the March-April issue of Foreign | | | | from its pro-Arab bias. Germany established a Central |
| Policy, the non-Muslim part of Europe will shrink by 3.5 | | | | Council for Muslims. Both anti-Americanism and the |
| percent by 2015 while the Muslim populace will likely | | | | more veteran anti-Israeli streak helped sustain |
| double. There are 3 million Turks in Germany and | | | | Europe's empathy with Muslim refugees and |
| another 12 million Muslims - Algerians, Moroccans, | | | | "freedom fighters" throughout the 1960s, 70s and |
| Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Egyptians, Senegalese, Malis, | | | | 80s.September 11 put paid to this amity. The danger |
| or Tunisians - in the rest of the European Union.This | | | | is that the brand of "Euro-Islam" that has begun to |
| is two and one half times the number of Muslims in | | | | emerge lately may be decimated by this pervasive |
| the United States. Even assuming - wrongly - that all | | | | and sudden mistrust. Time Magazine described this |
| of them occupy the lowest decile of income, their | | | | blend as "the traditional Koran-based religion with its |
| combined annual purchasing power would amount to | | | | prohibitions against alcohol and interest-bearing loans |
| a whopping $150 billion. Furthermore, recent | | | | now indelibly marked by the 'Western' values of |
| retroactive changes to German law have naturalized | | | | tolerance, democracy and civil liberties."Such |
| over a million immigrants and automatically granted its | | | | "enlightened" Muslims can serve as an invaluable |
| much-coveted citizenship to the 160,000 Muslims born | | | | bridge between Europe and Russia, the Middle East, |
| in Germany every year.Between 2-3 million Muslims in | | | | Asia, including China and other places with massive |
| France - half their number - are eligible to vote. | | | | Muslim majorities or minorities. As most world |
| Another million - one out of two - cast ballots in | | | | conflicts today involve Islamist militants, global peace |
| Britain. These numbers count at the polls and are not | | | | and a functioning "new order" critically depend on the |
| offset by the concerted efforts of a potent Jewish | | | | goodwill and communication skills of Muslims.Such a |
| lobby - there are barely a million Jews in Western | | | | benign amalgam is the only realistic hope for |
| Europe.Muslims are becoming a well-courted swing | | | | reconciliation. Europe is ageing and stagnating and can |
| vote. They may have decided the last election in | | | | be reinvigorated only by embracing youthful, dynamic, |
| Germany, for instance. Recognizing their growing | | | | driven immigrants, most of whom are bound to be |
| centrality, France established - though not without | | | | Muslim. Co-existence is possible and the clash of |
| vote-rigging - a French Council of the Islamic Faith, | | | | civilization not an inevitability unless Huntington's |
| the equivalent of Napoleon's Jewish Consistory. Two | | | | dystopic vision becomes the basic policy document |
| French cabinet members are Muslims. Britain has a | | | | of the West. |