Re: Is Islam dangerous for Europe's future?

Submitted by Vadim Anshelevich (United States), Sep 13, 2017 at 11:45

Mr. Pipes,

You wrote in your response to me:

"If I am saying that massive Muslim emigration is not good for Europe's future, I am saying what you want me to say".

Sure, it is interesting to know what you say, not what others, including me, want you to say. And yes, to be precise, you did not say in this interview that "massive Muslim emigration is not good for Europe's future". Nevertheless, you provided strong arguments for such conclusion.

Examples:
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Why are relations between Europeans and Muslim immigrants so fraught with tension?
They are fraught because Islam is an imperialist faith and many Muslim immigrants want to replace existing European civilization with Islam. Exacerbating matters, Europeans and Muslims are opposites on several key issues: Europeans have a low birthrate, Muslim immigrants have a high one. Europeans have a weak religious identity, Muslims have a strong one. Europeans feel guilty for their historical sins; immigrants have boisterous confidence in the superiority of their civilization.
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Cultures and customs change. Perhaps Muslims will adapt to European cultures if given the opportunity?
In theory, yes; in practice, no. Experience shows that the first generation of Muslim immigrants to Europe is more adaptable than its children and grandchildren, as cultural separation increases over time. It is hard to find any place in Europe where Muslim immigrants have assimilated, leading me gravely to doubt that this will take place in the future. Chileans, Chinese, and Congolese fit better into European culture than do Muslims.
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These are your words, not mine. And I think that here you have provided though not the most important arguments against massive Muslim immigration to Europe, but the significant ones.

Please note that according to you, the relations between Europeans and Muslim immigrants are fraught with tension not because those immigrants are Islamists, but because they are Muslims. And again, according to you, it is hard to find any place in Europe where Muslim immigrants have assimilated not because they are Islamists, but because they are Muslims.

In short, in this interview you did provide arguments that massive immigration of Muslims, not just Islamists, represents a potential danger or at least a problem for Europe.

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