The European Infitada

By Alan Caruba

2005/11/10

There is a certain schadenfreude in the scenes of the rioting in France , a gleeful, malicious pleasure that comes from knowing that there is always payback for bad behavior, whether in this world or the next.  

Ironically, France is where the Islamic march up the Iberian Peninsula to conquer Europe ended in 732 AD. Had not Charles Martel stopped the Moorish general, Abd al-Rahman and his Muslim army between Tours and Poitier, Europe and the whole of Western history would have been very different. Later, in 1492, a Christian army would recapture Grenada and put an end to the last Muslim stronghold in Spain . In 1683, Ottoman armies were defeated outside of Vienna , thus ending the efforts to conquer Europe 

One would think, if life in Muslim North Africa “the Maghreb” was so grand, why would literally millions of immigrants have sought to gain access to Europe ? The former European colonies have been independent for more than a half-century. Surely they represent a far more homogeneous environment that the cold climes of Europe, but the reality is that Muslim enclaves have been growing in places like England , the Netherlands , Norway , Germany , for decades.  

The difference between the Muslims who made new lives in new places and others is that they choose not to integrate into their new societies. They remained Muslims first and last, no matter what nation they called home. Their loyalty was to the “Uumma”, the great body of Islam, not a particular nation. They choose not to be English, French, or Dutch. They defined themselves in ways that insured they remained “the other” among those who took pride in their particular nation. 

As Tony Blankely, a Washington Times editor and author of a new book, “The West’s Last Chance”, noted in a November 9 commentary, “This is not about Muslim poverty. It is about radical Islamist self-confidence and contempt for the West. And, it is about Western weakness.” 

Muslim anger goes back to the Crusades, which lasted from 1095 to 1291. To this day, Christians are still regarded as “crusaders”, a common term among Middle Eastern Muslims, still smarting over the efforts to regain control of Jerusalem and other holy sites. Christians and Jews who live in the Middle East are still subject to attacks. The riots throughout France and elsewhere in Europe, along with those that occurred in the United Kingdom in July, in the Netherlands , in Madrid , bespeak an ugly future if modern Muslims have their way. 

France , however, has been experiencing at least half a decade of a slowly escalating Intifada waged against synagogues, kosher butchers and Jewish schools. Like the canary in the coal mine, where Jews are attacked, soon all others will be as well. 

Europe , as a whole, however, has either failed or refused to read the writing on the wall. Almost universally, it expressed hostility to the nation of Israel and solidarity with Muslim nations. As its own native-born populations decreased, it welcomed Muslims to the continent and the European Commission fostered a project found in the “Report of the High Advisory Group on Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean Area” that created a new “ethnic group” immigrants. Even if they have lived in Europe for several generations, they retain this identification and gain a special status.  

The Muslims of Europe apparently wouldn’t have it any other way. Living as they do among the “crusaders”, it was, they knew, only a matter of time before they finished the job that Abd al-Rahman and the Ottoman army could not. Too many Muslims do not want to integrate with a larger society. As soon as they gain in numbers, they insist that the host nation change to become Muslim, i.e., to abandon the rules of constitutional government and adopt sharia law.