Islam and Europe's Future

Campus Report ^ | March 21, 2008 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

Islam and Europe’s Future

by: Bethany Stotts, March 20, 2008

... George Weigel....contradicted this prediction, saying that he believes in a “muddled” outcome, with Sharia-dominated countries mixed among traditional European societies. “Some are going to make it and some are not. It’s very difficult for me, for example...to imagine a future for the Netherlands and Belgium that is not dramatically different...thirty, forty, fifty years from now than it is today,” he said...

Another speaker at the forum, Phillip Jenkins, remains skeptical of arguments predicated on a Muslim demographic surge, arguments which he asserts overlook European’s nascent rediscovery of its own religious heritage. “And then you have people who are rather mainstream people—traditionally would have been very secular—who have reexplored the Christian roots,” said Jenkins. He said “The likelihood is, certainly the way the trends are going at the moment, that [Muslim youth] are also going to decide in a few years that gee, they’re just having so much fun to be bothered to have children.”...

Weigel believes that Europe’s current fertility decline, appeasement of radical Muslims, and abrogation of religion stems from a “crisis of civilizational morale.”...

But Europe’s future is not necessarily lost, said Jenkins. He noted that the continued emphasis on a demographic crisis overlooks Africa’s increasing role in Europe. “What happens when Europe can no longer bring in Muslim immigrants because they’re running out of Algerians?...Well they have to do what they’ve been doing for the last two years, which is they dig deeper and deeper into Africa, where they come up with Christians,” said Jenkins....

One key message brought out by the forum, often overlooked by Western commentators, is that the Muslim religion itself should not be blamed for ongoing extremism, rather a combination of local factors....

[PGalt]

One key message brought out by the forum, often overlooked by Western commentators, is that the Muslim religion itself should not be blamed for ongoing extremism, rather a combination of local factors. Many Muslims around the world have diverse means of practicing their religion, but are quickly integrated into the radical Wahhabi mosques within Europe, Jenkins said. Barriers to the establishment of non-Wahhabi mosques which adhere to syncretized and localized traditions further ensure the religious conformity of these communities and hinder social integration.

Re-examine root cause.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[JeepInMazar]

Saudi Christians