Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN LEADERS SEND AN "OPEN LETTER" TO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

Read the letter here.  (HT: Jonah Goldberg)  My concern is that the Obama administration has amateurs at the helm who don't know what they are doing.  It would be tragic if U.S. foreign policy failed to undergird the fledging democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, and likewise failed to support them vis-a-vis Russia's aggressive actions and strategic plans. The new generation of leaders need to be engaged, not ignored.   They plead, "Don't give up missile defense."  NATO needs significant strengthening.  Signers of the letter include Vaclav Havel and Lech Welesa.

BRUCE BAWER ANALYZES THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF EUROPE'S RIGHTWARD TURN

- Update 6/16/09 - Between the Covers produced a short audio interview with Bawer, the author of Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom.  Bawer is an American, currently making his home in Norway.

- (Original post) - Bawer offers a major survey in the Spring, 2009 City Journal.

OBAMA DOESN'T LIKE EUROPEANS

I'm not sure Americans are paying attention, but if not, Ralph Peters reminds us how disdainful Obama has been to European leaders.  Peter's article sparkles.  The following two sentences grabbed me.

The new ice age was also evident during Bam's stop in Germany. Walking or standing side by side, he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel looked like a couple going through a brutal divorce who got caught in the same elevator on the way to meet their lawyers. . .

Our president not only identifies with the Third World, but with a romanticized Third World whose failings are all the West's fault. It's the typical view of an undergraduate leftist -- in 1979.

Here's more of his article:

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON - "EUROAMERICANS?"

VDH makes points we need to keep in mind.  A few examples from his article:

I think we are entering an age in which the federal government will increasingly guide our thoughts into what is deemed correct-the sort of car we must drive, the type of salary we should make, the sort of job we should have, even the type of thoughts we are to express, and all in the name of collective brotherhood. . .

40% OF FRENCH BELIEVE THERE'S NOTHING AFTER DEATH

Denis Boyles notes a poll,

one conducted by Sofres just in time for Easter and reported on Europe 1. It shows that 40 percent of  the French now believe there's "nothing after death." France is nominally Catholic, of course, but it's Catholic sort of the same way Kathleen Sebelius is "Catholic"  . . .   Maybe that's why, according to this poll, more French Catholics hope for reincarnation than believe in resurrection. The thought must be that if you could just get a do-over, you'd get it right the second time around.

Here's the French article, should anyone want to brush up on their high school or college French (like me):

40% des Français affirment qu’il n’y a rien après la mort, soit 13 % de plus qu’en 1986,

OBAMA'S TRIP SHOWS HE EXCELS . . . AT CAVING

- See Ed Morrissey's post.

- Update 4/6/09  - Charles Krauthammer on Friday's "Special Report:"

On Obama’s European tour:

Where does one begin? Obama says in America there is a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world.

 

Maybe that's because when there was a civil war in Europe's doorstep in the Balkans and genocide it didn't lift a finger until America led.

 

Maybe it's because there was an invasion in Kuwait it didn't lift a finger until America led.

 

Maybe it's because with America spending over half a trillion a year keeping over the sea lanes and defending the world, Europe is spending pennies on defense.

 

It's hard to appreciate an entity's leading role in the world when it's been sucking on your tit for 60 years as Europe has with regard to the United States, parasitically….

 

And then he goes on and calls America arrogant, dismissive, and derisive regarding Europe. "The London Telegraph," a correspondent in Strasburg, said this was the most critical remarks he had ever seen a president give on foreign soil, and I think he's right.

 

When Kennedy arrived in Paris, he did not attack Eisenhower and the United States. When Obama's elected president, he is president of all of the United States, including Americans who opposed him, and he owns American history, including a past he may not have wanted to engage in.

 

I think what he did is, in order to gain the adoration of the crowd, he denigrated his country in a way that I think is disgraceful. 

DO AMERICANS WANT THE UNITED STATES TO BE LIKE EUROPE?

Many do.  Clifford D. May objects (as well he should!), but he recognizes that Europeanization is the direction in which we are headed.  He quotes Charles Murray:

"It [the drift towards being like Europe] is going to be stopped only when we are all talking again about why America is exceptional, and why it is so important that America remain exceptional. That requires once again seeing the American project for what it is: a different way for people to live together, unique among the nations of the Earth, and immeasurably precious.”

May asks:

Do a sufficient number of Americans still believe that? Given the failures of America’s educational system, do most people even understand the choice that is about to be made? And, even if they do, how many are willing to fight to prevent such a counter-revolution? There may be no questions of greater consequence asked and answered over the years ahead.   (More . .  )

WORTH LOOKING AT . . .

Sharia creeps into Europe  - Olivier Guitta     (HT: Kathryn Jean Lopez)

Accounting for California's Suicide: A weird sort of utopian mindset.  - Victor Davis Hanson

Take a Break from Technology -  Chuck Colson

RALPH PETERS - EUROPE IN CRISIS

I hadn't realized just how bad things have become.  Ralph Peters informs us . . .

Czech President Vaclev Havel Compares EU to Soviet Union

Vaclev Havel is one of the great, courageous men of our time.  AP writer Constant Brand reports:

BRUSSELS – The European Union has turned into an undemocratic and elitist project comparable to the Communist dictatorships of eastern Europe that forbade alternative thinking, Czech President Vaclav Klaus told the European Parliament on Thursday. . . 

He said current EU practices smacked of communist times when the Soviet Union controlled much of eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic and when dissent or even discussions were not tolerated.    (more. . .)

Update: 2/20/09 - the text of Vaclev Havel's speech may be found here.

One-Third of Europeans Blame Economic Collapse On . . .

You guessed it . . .  The Jews.  Ed Morrissey reports on the original Jerusalem Post article saying:

Anti-Semitic attitudes have increased in the wake of the economic collapse, a study across seven European countries has found, with a third of Europeans blaming the Jews for the economy.  Spain appears to have the highest levels of animosity towards Jews . . .

Morrissey goes on to say:

Make no mistake about it; the Jews of the West are in danger of getting completely marginalized at a very bad time in history for it to happen.  If those numbers continue to grow, we can expect pressure from these Western nations to abandon Israel, and more importantly, to abandon the fight against radical Islamist terrorism and Iranian hegemony in the Middle East.

Vaclev Havel - President of the Czech Republic. Is There a National Leader Deserving More Respect?

He's not afraid to confront Al Gore over global warming.  He worries about freedom in the world.  And he fears economic "reforms" more than he does the economic crisis itself.  Jay Nordlinger reports from Davos:

A group of us met this afternoon with Václav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, which has the presidency of the European Union at the moment.

 

I asked Klaus something about global warming: “Al Gore calls people who disagree with him ‘deniers.’ I heard him do this just yesterday, in the Congress Center.” (The main forum here in

 
Saint Barack

L'Express is the French equivalent of Newsweek or Time. 

Translation:  "Barack Obama: The Man who can change the world"

The Brussels Journal cites a column by Jean-Michel Demetz published in the same issue that is, however, already expressing doubts:

We almost hate ourselves for spoiling such a planetary festivity. Everywhere one goes, there is amazement and sheer delight. The election of a young, black president, sexy, moderate, intelligent, is dazzling the world.

Not since John Fitzgerald Kennedy has a democratic leader aroused so much hope. Everybody is identifying with Saint Barack just as, yesterday, everybody mourned Saint Diana.

BRITAIN'S SHARIA COURTS

- Updates: 9/18/08 - John O'Sullivan comments . . . 

- Be sure to read Diana West as well.  She chronicles the continuing capitulation of the West to Islam.  "Europe means Rome, Greece, Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian roots. Europe is a continent of castles and cathedrals, not of mosques and minarets."  - "How can anyone who values freedom of conscience, equality before the law and other such Western jewels not have a healthy fear of Islamic law, which values none of these things?"

- Kathy Shaidle writes:

Muslim Sharia courts have been operating throughout England for more than a year. This startling fact came as news to not a few UK residents when the Sunday Times broke the story last week. Officially called “arbitration tribunals,” these courts already have ruled on over 100 cases, including divorces, financial disputes and domestic violence cases – even though the latter is a criminal and not a civil matter. As such, they represent a worrying advance for Islamic law into the heart of Europe.

According to the Times, the rulings of these courts are now legally binding. Previously, their judgments could not be enforced unless all parties involved agreed to abide by them. As of August 2007, however, “[r]ulings issued by a network of five Sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.” To match their growing authority, the courts themselves are proliferating: Two more Sharia courts are planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Click here for a whole lot more. . .

GERMANY DECLARES WAR ON HOME-SCHOOLERS

CBN News reports the latest.

Victor Davis Hanson - "Why Do Europeans Love Obama?"

VDH answers the question here.

AS THEY SEE US

By "they" I mean Europe and the world.  Byron York summarizes a conversation he had in Paris:

In the European mind, Guantanamo is one of the centers of evil in the world, a dungeon where George W. Bush commits unspeakable acts on innocent Muslims who just happened to be on a battlefield in Afghanistan or Pakistan when U.S. troops captured them.

To my mind this illustrates the truly lamentable public relations failure of the Bush administration to make its case to the world.  In today's world, an administration must exert as much time and energy in countering negative public opinion and persuading the public of the rightness of its policies, as  it does in the actual execution of its policies.

QUICK TAKES

1) Mark Krikorian - "The chief point of Dr. Bostom's The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism (reviewed here and here) is the same as his earlier Legacy of Jihad book — the problematic aspects of Islam, namely the sacralization of jihad war and of Jew-hatred, are not modern alien viruses but instead are integral to the faith."  See also Andy McCarthy's post (page 2)

2) Theodore Dalrymple -

And as is now well-known, a disturbing number of British Muslims have proved susceptible to the ideology of Islamism. A recent survey found that 40 percent of British Muslims under 24 wanted to live under sharia; 36 percent supported the death penalty for apostasy. Significantly, the figures for older Muslims were considerably lower. Another poll found that a fifth of all British Muslims had sympathy with the “feelings and motives” of the London suicide bombers. Only a third of British Muslims, a Guardian survey found, want more integration into British culture.

 … Pew Center research shows that six times as many Muslims in France as in Britain consider their national identity more important than their religious one: 42 percent versus 7 percent.

3) Thomas Sowell writes on the Left using Blacks as trophies or mascots.

BIG RISE IN ITALIAN DOCTORS REFUSING TO PERFORM ABORTIONS

News report here.   (HT: Drudge)

Nearly 70 percent of Italian gynecologists now refuse to perform abortions on moral grounds and the number is increasing, a report by the country's ministry of health said Tuesday. . .   In the south, this increase is even more pronounced and in certain areas the rate has almost doubled," the report adds. In Campania, the region around Naples, the proportion of gynecologists refusing to carry out the procedure reached 83 percent, and in Sicily 84.2 percent.

POPE BENEDICT XVI'S BAPTISM OF A FORMER MUSLIM: IT'S SIGNIFICANCE AND MEANING

Stephen Brown writes:

During the recent Easter vigil at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI baptized Muslim-born journalist, Magdi Allam, into the Christian faith before the eyes of the world.

. . . By baptizing such a prominent European Muslim in St. Peter's during one of Christianity's holiest times -- and deliberately garnering worldwide attention -- the Pope clearly intended to reach out to Muslims questioning their faith and to show them that they need not be afraid to convert. The Church is there for them.

The German pontiff was also announcing that the Church was no longer going to be cautious in regard to its policy of converting Muslims. As already noted in FPM, one of the main reasons Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope was to confront an aggressive, militant Islam. Among his goals, the former German cardinal said he intended to protect Christians in Muslim countries and Christian converts from Islamic brutality in Europe, indicating that Muslim converts were a high priority for him.

(see page 2)

ISLAMOBULLIES FORCE SHUTDOWN OF GEERT WILDERS' FILM - "FITNA"

Update 3/31/08 - LiveLeak has restored the film "Fitna."  Michelle Malkin comments .

Update 3/29/08 - The film is available here at Google video and here .  Michelle Malkin offers a news update and more video locations.  Wikipedia has a good overview of the film and the controversy.    A European website offering on-going coverage is Gates of Vienna, see e.g. here and additional posts.

**
Mark Steyn posts the update:

Geert Wilders' film is a hit - over 1.5 million views in English, over 2.5 million in Dutch last time I checked - but it's nevertheless been yanked by LiveLeak, with the following statement:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers. This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else.

Indeed. The Internet will keep Fitna alive in odd corners hither and yon, but only to those who actively seek it out. In the wider world, it goes without saying that such a film is unacceptable, and that this time round the pre-emptive rage (as Diana West

GEERT WILDER'S FILM ON ISLAM IS FINALLY OUT

Update 3/28/08  - Geert Wilders' film yanked  due to Islamobullies.

**
-The film was greatly feared by European governments and elsewhere because of its anti-Islamist thrust. Douglas Murray has important things to say  (HT: the Corner):

Well Geert Wilders' film 'Fitna' is finally out, as of last night, and so far there is no need to retire to the bunker.  At the time of writing there's been a bit of rioting in Karachi but Holland itself is still standing if - thanks to its government - slightly cowed

The film itself. . .  click here for the full 15min version - is well worth seeing.  It isn't for the faint-hearted: footage includes some of the most barbaric acts committed by the jihadists. But there's no burning of the Koran or ripping up of the Koran, or any of the other allegedly 'shocking' things which the Dutch government and others revealingly predicted would be in the film.  The film simply shows what the Koran says and then shows footage of certain Muslims carrying out those words to the letter.  To this extent, anything which people find shocking in the film should be put at the doors of Mohammed and certain of his followers, not Wilders.

Quick Takes

** Stanley Kurtz writes on Dr.James Cone, a leading advocate of Black Liberation theology, and the mentor of Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

** Victor Davis Hanson takes a look at Rev. Jeremiah Wright's successor, Rev. Moss who "likens the media storm over Jeremiah Wright's racist and anti-American remarks to a lynching and crucifixion."

Rev. Moss’s interviews and sermons concerning Wright suggest that he is in complete agreement with his former pastor’s views, and will continue to promulgate them, albeit perhaps with less profanity and slander.

** Turkish ruling party cracks down on a free press 

** Andrew G. Bostom on our inability to stand tall for human rights

** Stephen Brown writes on Dutch MP Geert Wilders (filmaker) - "The Islamists' Nemesis"   Update 3/28/08 - Here's the link to the Geert Wilders movie

3,000 LATVIANS PARTICIPATE IN PRO-NAZI RALLY

Micah Halpern reports:

On Sunday, in Riga, three thousand Latvians came out to join a parade. It was a parade to honor those Latvians who belonged to and fought in and defended the honor of a notorious SS Unit known as the Latvian Legion. . .

Latvia, along with the rest of the USSR, was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Then, as now, Riga was the capital of Latvia. According to a census taken in 1935 there were 43,672 Jews living in Riga. After the war there were 150 Jews, survivors from Riga.

Most of Riga's Jews were murdered in a place called Rumbla, a "killing fields" located only seven miles outside the city. There, on two separate days, first on November 30th and then on December 8th, 1941 the Nazis - with the help of the local Latvians, mowed down 25,000 Jews.

The Jewish Ghetto in Riga, like most Jewish ghettos created during World War II, was situated in the most densely populated area of the Jewish community. In Riga that area was called Maskava. In Riga, like in every other city under their control, in order for the Nazi massacre of the Jews to succeed the Germans needed local assistance. The assistance that the Latvian community of Riga gave to Nazi Command came in the form of the Latvian Legion, proud members of the German SS.

We now know, the proof is in the numbers, that local Latvians today, are still proud of their members of the Latvian Legion. . .  [more]

DUTCH TO LEGALIZE GAY SEX IN PUBLIC PARK

From Lisa Schiffren at The Corner:

The famously tolerant Dutch, whose nation has the highest emmigration [sic] of any European country as the native born flee the effects of multi-culturalism, Islamization, and the after effects of legalizing everything, have come up with a new line to cross. Public sex in Amsterdam's city parks will now be legal. But only for gays. And henceforth dogs will no longer be allowed off their leashes. Read about it here. But I am wondering why the government won't let the poor dogs run free while the gays are "having uncomplicated relations." What are they afraid of?

CZECH PRESIDENT VACLAV KLAUS WITH DISSENTING VIEWS ON GLOBAL WARMING, RUSSIA, KOSOVO, AND AMERICA

Brian M. Carney of the Wall Street Journal reports on his interview with Klaus.  An excerpt:

Mr. Klaus is also interested in the politics of global warming. He has written a book, tentatively titled "Blue, Not Green Planet," published in Czech last year and due out in English translation in the U.S. this May. The main question of the book is in its subtitle: "What is in danger: climate or freedom?"

He likens global-warming alarmism to communism, which he experienced first-hand in Cold War Czechoslovakia, then a Soviet satellite. While the communists argued that we must all sacrifice some freedom in pursuit of "equality," the "warmists," as Mr. Klaus calls them, want us to sacrifice liberty -- especially economic liberty -- to prevent a change in climate. In both cases, in Mr. Klaus's view, the costs of achieving the goal, and the impossibility of truly doing so, argue strongly against paying a price of freedom.

EUROPE LOVES OBAMA

Guy Sorman at City Journal reports:

Europe’s media and left-wing intelligentsia see Barack Obama as the most appealing candidate for the U.S. presidency. He exemplifies what the French leftist magazine Le Nouvel Observateur calls “the America we like.” Most Europeans deny that they’re anti-American; they argue instead that there are two Americas—the good and the bad. Michael Moore is a good American, honored with the Cannes film festival’s highest prize in 2006 for his anti-Bush fantasy documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Other good Americans include Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Noam Chomsky, Barbra Streisand, and Philip Roth. Charlton Heston and Billy Graham are bad—as bad as McDonald’s—and so, of course, are President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Let us understand why, from the European perspective, Obama is good.  . .  (More . . .)

WAS RECOGNIZING KOSOVO AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE A MISTAKE? MELANIE PHILLIPS THINKS SO

Melanie Phillips writes:

The decision by Britain, America and certain other European countries to recognise Kosovo as an independent state is mind-blowingly stupid and suicidal and of a piece with their obvious determination to capitulate in the war for civilisation. It is a rotten decision for the following reasons:  (more . . . )

BRUCE THORNTON: "DECLINE AND FALL: EUROPE'S SLOW-MOTION SUICIDE"

Update 3/10/08 - Peter Robinson offers a video interview with Dr. Thornton.  The Corner previews saying:

The degeneration of Europe is a familiar subject to anyone who has been reading Mark Steyn, but Bruce comes at the matter from a different angle than does Mark, concentrating less the collapse of the European population than on the collapse of European belief. “If traditional Christianity is discarded,” Bruce asks in today’s opening segment, “then what will unify Europeans?” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

- NRO today published an interview with Bruce Thornton, author of Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow-Motion Suicide .  Some excerpts:

Lopez: Is there a European view of free speech? How poisonous is it?

Thornton: Generally the European view of free speech is much more restricted than what we enjoy in the United States. Like politically correct American professors, many Europeans — certainly not all — are all for the freedom of speech that attacks the U.S. or Chritianity or Israel, but then they put out of bounds criticism of Islam or Muslims. Hypocritical double standards are always poisonous, for they undercut the authority of the principle in question.

ENGLAND CONTINUES ITS CAPITULATION TO MUSLIMS

In England, the Telegraph reports husbands with multile wives have been given the right to claim extra welfare benefits.  Amazing!

Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision by ministers means that polygamous marriages can now be recognised formally by the state, so long as the weddings took place in countries where the arrangement is legal.

The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law. . .

David Pryce-Jones reports: 

News of the Islamization of Britain comes thick and fast. In the last few days, the children’s story of the three little pigs who built a house against the Big Bad Wolf has been forbidden for fear of offending Muslims. . .  According to a government program, British schools

EUROPE'S ABORTION RULES - MORE STRINGENT THAN USA'S

This BBC survey offers a country-by-country rundown of European countries and their abortion regulations.  Yuval Levin points out that

European abortion laws are significantly more restrictive than our Roe regime . . . All the European countries have at least an upper limit on the point in the pregnancy at which an abortion may be performed (generally 12 weeks), which we do not. Several also forbid public funds from supporting abortions, and/or require parental consent, waiting periods, counseling etc. None are as permissive as the U.S.

Happy Thanksgiving!- Mark Steyn Contrasts America with Europe

Steyn, as is his wont, has produced another unique article that probably no one else could write, at least certainly not so wittily and engagingly.  In the process he awakens readers to the exceptional nature of America in the course of world history.  Consider:

“The New World” is one of the oldest settled constitutional democracies on earth, to a degree “the Old World” can barely comprehend. Where it counts, Americans are traditionalists. We know Eastern Europe was a totalitarian prison until the Nineties, but we forget that Mediterranean Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal) has democratic roots going all the way back until, oh, the mid-Seventies; France and Germany’s constitutions date back barely half a century, Italy’s only to the 1940s, and Belgium’s goes back about 20 minutes, and currently it’s not clear whether even that latest rewrite remains operative. The U.S. Constitution is not only older than France’s, Germany’s, Italy’s or Spain’s constitution, it’s older than all of them put together.

He goes on:

Americans think of Europe as Goethe and Mozart and 12th century castles and 6th century churches, but the Continent’s governing mechanisms are no more ancient than the Partridge Family. Aside from the Anglophone democracies, most of “the west’”s nation states have been conspicuous failure at

Europe Guide : Maps of Europe by language, religion, population density, hair & eye color, etc.

These are fascinating maps.  Click here and keep scrolling down to see all the maps.

Belgium: Example of Growing EU Fissiparous Sectarianism?

Jonah Goldberg observes:

What’s so interesting? In short: Belgium is coming apart at the seams. . .   No country is more invested in the EU experiment than Belgium, whose capital, Brussels, is also the capital of the EU. If Belgium falls to sectarianism, what does that say about prospects for making Europe into a super-Belgium?

. . .  But what I really like about the Belgian crisis is that it puts a dent in the myth that Europe represents some enlightened new model exportable to the rest of the globe. After World War II and the Holocaust, a generation of diplomats and intellectuals predicted that nationality, religion and culture would matter less in the New Europe. But wishing didn’t make it so.   more

A Superior European Education?

Click through to this You Tube video.  You'll find it hard to believe. 
(HT: Tim at Random Observations)

Theodore Dalrymple: "Islam, The Marxism of Our Time"

Dalrymple begins his City Journal article this way:

From an Islamist point of view, the news from Europe looks good. The Times of London, relying on a police report, recently observed that the Deobandis, a fundamentalist sect, now run nearly half of the 1,350 mosques in Britain and train the vast majority of the Muslim clerics who get their training in the country. The man who might become the sect’s spiritual leader in Britain, Riyadh ul Haq, believes that friendship with a Christian or a Jew makes “a mockery of Allah’s religion.” At least no one could accuse him of a shallow multiculturalism.

He goes on:

According to Le Figaro, 70 percent of Muslims in France intend to keep the fast during Ramadan, up from 60 percent in 1989. Better still, from

Anti-Islamist Rally Banned in Brussels

From Vasko Kohlmayer's report:

An eagerly awaited public rally was to take place in Brussels - the capital of the European Union - on September 11 of this year.  Called 'Against Islamisation of Europe,' its intent was to protest the spreading of Islamic sharia law across the European continent and honor by a minute of silence the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. 

The fact that the rally has been banned is a serious and significant development and reading the article will indicate why.  Kolmayer concludes his report:

It is hard to believe that

Ralph Peters' New Book: "Wars of Blood and Faith"

Jamie Glazov of FrontPageMag.com has posted an interesting interview with Ralph Peters, the author of  Wars of Blood and Faith: Wars that Will Shape the 21st Century.  

In this interview Peters says (among other things) that 1) Washington's  secularist mentality precludes grasping the reality of an enemy engaged in a religious war;  2)  The Age of Ideology is over and that now the world is returning to its normal "wars of blood and belief, fought over ethnic and religious issues;" and 3) he doesn't see "Eurabia" in Europe's future. 

The Europeans have been playing pacifist dress-up while we protected them, but, sufficiently threatened, they'll revert to their historical pattern--which is to over-react.  Europe's Muslims may prove to be the real endangered species. . .   For me, the question isn't whether Muslims will take over Europe, but whether Europe will simply expel them or kill any number of them first.  Sound far-fetched?  How would the Holocaust have sounded to an educated German (or Brit, or American) in 1932?  Europe is a killer continent.  When the chips are down, it will kill again.    (more)

Me:  No doubt my reading isn't as wide as it might be, but I haven't come across anyone predicting this particular European future before.  Any thoughts?

"Global South" Christians Impacting Denmark

Chuck Colson reports:

A recent Washington Post story described the impact that Christians from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are having on the Danes. Immigrants have started more than 150 churches in Denmark. These churches not only minister to foreign-born residents, but increasingly to native Danes as well.

Karsten Nissen, a Lutheran bishop, called the immigrant Christian churches “a gift to our Danish Lutheran Church” that helps Danes understand how Christians are supposed to live.

According to Bess Semer-Pederson, who runs Alpha Denmark, a course that teaches the basics of Christianity, Denmark “[needs] these immigrant churches, because they are bringing a message that we have forgotten.”  (more)

Philip Jenkins Predicts a Christian Comeback in Europe; Richard John Neuhaus Remains Unpersuaded

Philip Jenkins says:

Alarmist pundits prophesy that a secular Europe risks being overcome by its fast-growing Muslim population. Yet for all we hear about Islam, Europe remains a stronger Christian fortress than people realize.

He points out that "new religious currents have become a potent force."

Examples include movements such as the Focolare, the Emmanuel Community, and the Neocatechumenate Way, all of which are committed to a re-evangelization of Europe. These movements use charismatic styles of worship and devotion that would seem more at home in an American Pentecostal church, but at the same time they are thoroughly Catholic. Though most of these movements originated in Spain and Italy, they have subsequently spread throughout Europe and across the Catholic world. Their influence over the younger clergy and lay leaders who will shape the church in the next generation is surprisingly strong.

Jenkins identifies various Protestant movements, and then invites us to pay attention to the "hugely energetic immigrant congregations."

On a typical Sunday, half of all churchgoers in London are African or Afro-Caribbean. Of Britain’s 10 largest megachurches, four are pastored by Africans. Paris has 250 ethnic Protestant churches, most of them black African. Similar trends are found in Germany. Booming Christian churches in Africa and Asia now focus much of their evangelical attention on Europe. Nigerian and Congolese ministers have been especially successful, but none more so than the Ukraine-based ministry of Nigerian evangelist Sunday Adelaja. He has opened more than 300 churches in 30 countries in the last 12 years and now claims 30,000 (mainly white) followers.

I don't have space to record all that Jenkins says, but he concludes this way:

Europe may be confronting the dilemmas of a truly multifaith society, but with Christianity poised for a comeback, it is hardly on the verge of becoming an Islamic colony.

All this is in line with his book  God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).  Interestingly, Richard John Neuhaus offered a major review in the May 2007 First Things issue.  He has serious reservations about Jenkins' thesis and in his article explains why he remains expectant that Europe will eventually go Muslim.

Secularist Europe Silences Pro-Lifers and Creationists

Paul Belian of the Brussels Journal files the following report.  In your reading, I encourage you to click through to an embedded link,  "Europe's Culture War: Secularism on the March.

Last week, a German court sentenced a 55-year old Lutheran pastor to one year in jail for “Volksverhetzung” (incitement of the people) because he compared the killing of the unborn in contemporary Germany to the holocaust. Next week, the Council of Europe is going to vote on a resolution imposing Darwinism as Europe’s official ideology. The European governments are asked to fight the expression of creationist opinions, such as young earth and intelligent design theories. According to the Council of Europe these theories are “undemocratic” and “a threat to human rights.”

Without legalized abortion the number of German children would increase annually by at least 150,000 – which is the number of legal abortions in birth dearth Germany. Pastor Johannes Lerle compared the killing of the unborn to the killing of the Jews in Auschwitz during the Second World War. On 14 June, a court in Erlangen ruled that, in doing so, the pastor had “incited the people” because his statement was a denial of the holocaust of the Jews in Nazi-Germany. Hence, Herr Lerle was sentenced to one year in jail. Earlier, he had already spent eight months in jail for calling abortionists “professional killers” – an allegation which the court ruled to be slanderous because, according to the court, the unborn are not humans.  .  . .

"Volksverhetzung" is a crime which the Nazis often invoked against their enemies and which contemporary Germany also uses to intimidate homeschoolers. Soon, the German authorities will be able to use the same charge against people who question Darwin’s evolution theory.

Indeed, next Tuesday, the Council of Europe (CoE), Europe’s main human-rights body, will vote on a proposal which advocates the fight against creationism, “young earth” and “intelligent design” in its 47 member states.

According to a report of the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly, creationists are dangerous “religious fundamentalists” who propagate “forms of religious extremism” and “could become a threat to human rights.” The report adds that the acceptance of the science of evolutionism “is crucial to the future of our societies and our democracies.”

Europe's Tough New Immigration Stance

Stanley Kurtz, always worth reading, notes that Europe is changing its immigration policy.

Flushing Out Islamic Double-Speak in Europe

Fred Siegel in a City Journal article, "Hope for Old Europe," brings us up to date on Europe's slow awakening to the Muslim threat, fogged over until now by clever Muslim extremists' employment of Western freedoms and accommodated by liberal obtuseness and blindness.  It's a useful read.  A few excerpts:

Sarkozy’s road [Nicolas Sarkozy, newly elected French President] to the Elysee Palace was paved not only by the mini-Intifada in the Paris banlieues, but also by a memorable public exchange about Islam. An intellectually confident Sarkozy, then the interior minister, debated suave, articulate Tariq Ramadan, the grandson and heir of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. With 6 million viewers watching, Sarkozy asked Ramadan, famed as an Islamic version of a Euro-Communist, if he agreed with his brother Hani Ramadan—who had argued, in line with Muslim law, that adulterous women should be stoned to death. Pressed to agree or disagree of free speech

The Collapse of Europe, The Rise of Islam, and the Consequences for the United States

The above title served as the title of an international conference held last weekend at Pepperdine University.  It featured a number of luminaries including  Hugh Hewitt who gave the closing plenary address.  On a blog post he cites the books and articles he mentioned in his address. 

TimeOutLondn’s latest issue: “Is London’s Future Islamic?”  I also cited an article and two speeches on the future of Europe by Pope Benedict XVI: 

A January 2006 article in First Things, “Europe and Its Discontents”

the speech at Regenburg, and a speech to bishops on the eve of the 50^th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

I also recommended “American Exceptionalism” by James Q Wilson in the October 2, 2006 issue of The American Spectator, “Soft Europe,” by Leon de Winter from the March 7, 2006 OpinionJournal, and the websites of Daniel Pipes and Claire Berlinski.

I recommended two books,  The Looming Tower and America Alone, as well as articles like Lawrence Wright’s “The Master Plan,”

The 1990 United States Supreme Court decision I cited is Employment Division v. Smith.

Finally, the site on Islam v. Islamists, the film being censored by PBS, is FreeTheFilm.com.

The organizations I recommended funding are The Alliance Defense Fund, The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and the Center for Security Policy.

Europe Can Learn From America About Integrating Muslims

Irshad Manji offers observations. 

Walid Phares Sees France's Election of Sarkozy as the First Step in the Return of the French Resistance, This Time Against Jihadism

Click here for Walid Phares' extremely interesting (and hopeful) assessment of Sarkozy's victory.

Update:   Ann Coulter (yes, her! - she still bears quoting from time to time!), notes that Democrats are losing their talking points. 

It looks like the Democrats are going to have to drop their talking point about Bush irritating the rest of the world – evidently not as much as Muslim terrorists irritate the rest of the world. The politicians who hate Bush keep being dumped by their own voters. 

. . . All over the civilized world, voters are turning terrorist-coddling liberals out of office and voting for politicians friendly toward Bush, the world's sworn enemy of Islamic fascism.

Those foreign leaders so admired by Democrats for hating George Bush and loving Saddam Hussein are being replaced by rulers who pledge their friendship to the United States. American celebrities who threaten to move out of the country every election rather than live under a conservative leader are running out of countries to move to.

. . . The Democratic Party is now officially the only organization on Earth that does not take the threat of Islamic fascism seriously. Between the Democrats and the media, America has gone from its usual position as the world's last hope to radical Islam's last hope.

U.S. Evangelical Law Organizations Try to Influence European Law Towards Greater Religious Freedom

This Christian Science Monitor news article is embedded in my last post, but I think it deserves to have a post of its own.  The article highlights some of the work being done in Europe by evangelical law organizations such as the American Center for Law and Justice , the Alliance Defence Fund,  the International Human Rights Group , and the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Melissa Busekros, the German Homeschooled Child, Flees Her Foster Home

Ted Olsen, writing for the revived Christianity Today blog,  picks up the story of the terrible plight of a homeschooling family in Germany.   (I first blogged about it here - "Homeschooling in Germany: Gov't Takes Child from Parents")

Olsen writes: 

Do a news search (Google | MSLive | Yahoo) on "Melissa Busekros" and you'll get several hits.

But what you won't get are many results from mainstream media sources. The Christian Science Monitor is one of the few outlets to pick up what is surely the hottest topic in Christian home-schooling circles.

The background: After the German government tried for two years to get Melissa's family to stop home-schooling the 15 year old, officials removed her from her home in February, put her in a foster home, and sent her to psychiatric treatment for "school phobia."

The update: Yesterday, on her 16th birthday, Melissa fled her foster home and showed up on her parents' doorstep.

At the age of 16 Germany grants more rights, so maybe Melissa will be able to stay at home with her parents.  Click through to the latest updates embedded in the last paragraph above.

Can Pope Benedict XVI Successfully Alter Europe's Secular, Post-Christian Mindset?

Though not Roman Catholic myself, I maintain great respect for Pope Benedict XVI.  His grasp of the modern world and the European situation impresses almost all observers.  I suspect he is the right Pope at the right time.  I learned from today's New York Times that the Pope will turn 80 on April 16th.  From the article:

Benedict is one of the most intellectual men ever to serve as pope — and surely one of the most intellectual of current world leaders — and he has pinpointed the problem of the age, as well as its solution, at the level of philosophy. His argument, elaborated in the years leading up to

Cousin Marriage in the Arab World: It's Significance for Assimilation into European Culture

Stanley Kurtz opens up a window of insight in his two articles, Part I and Part II.   What does the tendency to marry first cousins mean for Muslim assimilation in the West?   Studies have indicated that it means a lot.  Kurtz writes:

A preference for marriage with cousins characterizes large sections of the Muslim world. In two previous pieces, “Marriage and the Terror War” and “Marriage and the Terror War, Part II,” I’ve argued that the Muslim preference for cousin marriage (along with several associated social practices) helps explain why it has become difficult to reconcile Islamic social life with modernity, why Muslim immigrants in Europe have been slow to assimilate, and ultimately, why we are engaged in a war with Islamic terrorists.

Cousin marriage, I have argued, helps to create and organize a deep-lying bias in the Muslim world toward in-group solidarity—a social strategy that has the effect of walling off Muslim society from outside influences, heightening internal cohesion, and insuring cultural continuity. By no means do all Muslims marry their cousins. Yet, throughout much of the Muslim world, the cultural ideal and practice of cousin marriage helps to set and reinforce in-group solidarity as a leading social theme.

Kurtz draws on the work of British social anthropologist Roger Ballard who directs the Centre for Applied South Asian Studies at England’s University of Manchester.  In particular, he leans heavily on Ballard's 1990