Europe dreads Islamic surge

The Pioneer > Online Edition

"Europe dreads Islamic surge

Sunanda K Datta-Ray

It seems far-fetched to depict Afghanistan’s rocky terrain as the ramparts of Western Christendom. Yet the invention of a composite word, ‘Eurabia’, suggests that Europe is fighting for its future in that land of warlords, fierce tribes and $ 3.4 billion narcotics industry, scheduled to elect a new President next Thursday. Ominously, several military strategists in Britain and the US feel the war cannot be won.

“Islam is a magnificent religion that has also been, at times over the centuries, a glorious and generous culture,” a leading Western journalist, Christopher Caldwell, wrote. “But, all cant to the contrary, it is in no sense Europe’s religion and it is in no sense Europe’s culture.” He added that “in the middle of the 20th century there were virtually no Muslims in Western Europe”. Now there are more than 15 million, including five million in France, four million in Germany and two million in Britain. Others suggest a higher figure, claiming that France’s nine million illegal Muslims are not included, and that the community’s higher fertility recalls Col Muammar Gaddafi’s boast that Europe will become “a Muslim continent within a few decades”."