Influx of Muslim populations into Europe and else where

Submitted by Prashant (United States), May 22, 2016 at 12:08

Dear Dr Pipes,

Your reader lippy from the United States hypothesized that the purpose behind the influx of millions of Muslims from the ME into Europe is a grand plan to recapture the territory lost to European powers after the collapse of Ottoman empire. You responded that Lippy was seeing a grand plan in what is actually a short-term maneuvering.

Whether the above large scale immigration is a grand plan or short-term maneuvering, the net effect is the same. as the ratio of Islamic population in a region increases, socio-political instability also increases. Islamic populations around the world can be characterized by some common traces. Here are some of them: 1. No or low respect for democracy. 2. No or low respect for religious inclusiveness. 3. Excessive reliance on violence to solve socio-political problems. 4. No process of assimilation of immigrants into Islamic societies unless the person converts to Islam (can a European living in Saudi Arabia become a Saudi citizen?). 5. Excessive desire to break nations and create independent Islamic states. 6. Higher birth rate in the Islamic sections of the population compared to the rest. 7. Incessant demands for more rights and privileges compared to the rest of the population. 8. Tendency to vote as single voting block in democratic elections.

As more Muslims immigrate to Europe --no matter what the reason-- Europe should prepare itself for the above and similar consequences. Solutions to this phenomenon like the ones proposed by Donald Trump are radical. But there are some things that we all can legitimately do. Genuine democracy in Islamic nations is everyone's business. If we need to provide them aid when they are in trouble and if we are obligated to accept their refugees when they harm each other, it is our business to demand that they live by values that in our judgment are good for everyone. So the fact there is no democracy in Saudi Arabia, for example, is not a fact that any one of us should ignore.

We cannot force that Islamic nations adopt democracy as a way of life but we must also not treat absence of democracy in Islamic nation as a routinely acceptable thing.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".