A slight disagreement with Daniel Pipes

Submitted by Son of Liberty (United States), Mar 30, 2007 at 20:22

First of all, thank you, Mr. Pipes, for another excellent piece.

I generally feel you laid out the various scenarios clearly, and I do feel that your logic for the potential likelihood of the different scenarious was quite solid. But I might disagree with your initial premise that Europe will go in ONE of these directions. Isn't it perhaps more likely that all three of these scenarios will take place simultaneously, to various degrees, both within and among the countries of Europe?

I would argue that two of them are in place now. Certainly, there are some examples of individual Muslims integrated seemlessly into European society. And no matter how bad things get, I have trouble envisioning a future witch-hunt in Europe in which every single person suspected of being a Muslim is either deported or executed. I think some Muslims will be able to integrate into traditional European culture.

And as far as the "Muslims Rule" scenario, doesn't that already exist in some of the French banlieues, and in some of the urban Muslim conclaves in the Netherlands and the UK-----where the native authorities are afraid to go, and Muslim culture is supreme? I would argue that in some places, Eurabia is already a fact on the ground.

The one thing we haven't seen yet is the forceful response against Muslims by native European groups---and I think that is inevitable. And my prediciton is that once those groups assert some power, and when it becomes clear to the general populations of Europe that it was the Center-left Multiculturalist governments that willfully betrayed their own people---the legitimacy of the governments will wane and they will become very weak and ineffectual---like in Lebanon or the Balkans. More power will instead reside in ethnic militias.

But anyways, given the diversity of the cultures of origin of some of the Muslim populations in Europe, and given the diversity among the various European countries, isn't it likely that we'll see all three of these scenarios, to various degrees?

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Interesting argument. Even if there are elements of two or three scenarios, my point is that one of them will predominate.