And you wonder why many voices have been warning of
the consequences now seen in the flames all over
France
, the terrors of
England
’s bus and subway systems, and the streets of the
Netherlands
where at least one prominent infidel, deemed an enemy of Islam, was shot to
death and then had a knife plunged into his heart.
The Jihad has come to
Europe
. It is the same Europe in which some nations decried the American invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq as the first step to transform the Middle East sufficiently
to join it to the rest of the global community; to impose a measure of freedom
unknown in that backwater of history, and to permit its people to connect at
last to the rest of the world.
The problems endemic to the Middle East and exported
to
Europe
can be summed up in a single word, Islam. It is not a religion of peace. It is
a warrior cult based on life in seventh century
Arabia
. A billion people around the world subscribe to Islam and it clearly provides
spiritual comfort, but it also imposes the requirement to conquer and
subordinate all other people of faith to their control.
While Christians have evangelized the word of
Christ, Muslims have spread Islam by the sword. These days an element of Muslims
is using terror as their instrument of war. This is hardly an encouragement for
anyone, anywhere, to convert except as an alternative to death or the slavery
that comes with dhimmitude, a second-class citizenship in nations ruled by
Muslims.
The tolerance, the appeasement, shown by modern
Europe
has not worked. It was seen as weakness and it is now being tested with a view
to transforming
Europe
. It will not go away or diminish peacefully. One need only look at the wars
waged against
Israel
for proof of that.
Even President Bush has been forced to change the
rhetoric of “a war on terrorism” to a war on fundamentalist Islam. September
11, 2001 forced
America
to use its military power to join the battle. It was then joined by the
Great Britain
and a number of nations that had lived under Soviet domination. Now one can
only hope that the rest of
Europe
will, at last, join it as well.
Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning
Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.
© Alan Caruba, 2005
