Raphael Israeli - Muslim Minorities in Modern States

This volume is part of a larger research project on the extraordinary venture of Islam in modern Europe, which can be tackled as a study into the acculturation of an alien minority culture in Christian Europe, but can also be seen as part of the large wave of immigration since World War II whereby the less fortunate, but demographically affluent developing world of the south, has been inexorably attracted towards the prosperous and manpower-hungry countries of the North and the West. It can also be seen, from a historical perspective, as the third Muslim invasion of Europe. The first was that of the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century, where Islam established a splendid culture and Caliphate until it was repulsed by the Christian Reconquista in the fifteenth century, while the second was into the Balkans, up to the gates of Vienna at the end of the fifteenth century, lasting until the end of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Granted that the approach to this study also conditions its method of research and its findings, it is important to note that while the mainstay of Islam in Europe will be dealt with other books*, this volume is concerned with the migration of Islam into the periphery of the Western world, Canada, Australia and Asia, both as extensions of Europe and as a control group to gauge by comparison the fate of the main body of migra tory Islam into the West. The chapters that accompany the detailed analysis of the periphery of Islam are but intended to provide a general background in order to acquaint the reader with the problematique of Muslim acculturation into European culture and political system.

I am indebted to my home institution, the Harry Truman Research Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, for all the facilities and services which enabled me to work in full tranquility to complete this book. It was during a sabbatical semester at the Shalom College, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia in early 2006, that this volume took its shape. I thank its director Dr Hilton Immerman and his staff for all their assistance and staunch support.

As usual, though I vastly benefited from the help and advice of many colleagues, the responsibility for all errors of fact and interpretation rests solely and squarely on my own shoulders.

Jerusalem, Summer 2007

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* The Spread of Islamikaze Terrorism in Europe, Vallentine Mitchell & Co Ltd., London, 2008. The Islamic Challenge in Europe, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ, 2008.

Europe, like the rest of the world, was stunned by the horrors of September 11. Western delegations and leaders poured into Washington D.C. to present their condolences and sympathies to the United States. But as soon as the US began to react to terrorism by fighting it actively, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, it found itself almost alone but for the loyalty of Tony Blair and John Howard, who harnessed the resources of their countries to that battle. Moreover, many Europeans elected their narrow and immediate national interests over the eradication of Saddams regime, and instead of instilling into their citizenry the need to stand up to the new terrorist barbarians, they behaved like soft states that had lost the will to stand up for their values and future. It is worthwhile recalling that in past millennia the rich, powerful, self-assured Empires of Rome, Persia, Byzantium and China had much to lose yet were unwilling to fight anymore. These empires subsequently lost their battles with Vandals, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols (and then the Manchu), respectively, because these had nothing to lose, looked with contempt upon life, but coveted the wealth of their neighbors and concluded that it behoove them to seize it, rather than let it languish in the hands of those declining empires which they ultimately attacked and destroyed.

People should learn, if not from others experience, then at the very least from their own, from the antecedents that have tormented their own cultures when not heeded by their peers, forebears and cultural equivalents. As we shall see in the chapters that follow, disturbing warning signs developing in Western countries were unnoticed or denied, only to hit also the peripheral areas of the Muslim world. Canada and Australia, and to some extent the countries of Asia, fell into a syndrome of denial until they were shaken up and forced to listen, often at a price. At the core of the Muslim presence in Europe are countries like Britain, France and Germany, for example, which were lacking in law-enforcement against terrorists since the executive and judiciary systematically preferred human rights, and apparent safety by appeasement, over defensive measures to protect their citizens and way of life. Muslim immigrants, many of whom were accustomed to the often abusive law of their countries of origin, flooded by the millions to the heart of Europe; but even as clear threats of Jihad were heard in London and Paris, these threats were for the most part ignored by European governments.

The writing was on the wall, but the Britsh Home Secretary Jack Straw, for example, failed to read, see and hear it. His liberal policy, for which he was to repent only too late, was more convenient to embrace, rather than to heed the menace of terror. In so doing, he acted irresponsibly, and that is the only yardstick to judge a government: not by its liberal intentions, good-hearted policies or idealistic values, but by its failure to defend its citizens, by allowing terrorists to abuse Britain by wreaking havoc on its citizens, and by its myopic understanding of the growing Muslim threat permitted through his ideological blinders. It is a fact that too little and too late the same British government has had to reverse its policies and to seek even harsher measures than public opinion or Parliament would allow, which is an indication of its inability to foresee what was coming and to prepare its citizenry before terror struck.