| | William Underhill in last week’s Newsweek magazine wrote a cover story about ‘Why fears of a Muslim takeover [of Europe] are all wrong’.
The article mentions the farfetched claims of those that foresee in Europe’s future a ‘creeping Islamification’, to quote BNP party leader Nick Griffin, and critiques the Eurabia thesis and its unfounded assumption of Muslim birthrates outstripping that of White Europeans.
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Underhill writes that all the speculation ‘obscures a simple fact: the rise of a Eurabia is predicated on limited and dubious evidence.'
He explains:
‘Coming up with a reasonable estimate for the percentage of Muslims now living in Europe, let alone making projections for the future, is a virtually impossible task. The number of illegal immigrants is unknown and, in a sign of the sensitivity of the issue, many countries including France and Germany do not even tally census data on the religion of legal residents. It is true that the Muslim minority is destined to grow steadily in Europe, especially given the youthful profile of today's immigrants. Fertility rates remain higher among Muslim immigrants than among other Europeans, and Muslims may continue to arrive in Europe in large numbers. But the alarmists assume that past patterns are sure to hold.
‘For the number of Muslims to outnumber non-Muslims by midcentury, it would require either breeding on a scale rarely seen in history or for immigration to continue at a pace that's now politically unacceptable. More likely, new controls will slow Muslim immigration. The birthrate for Muslim immigrants is also likely to continue to decline, as it has tended to do, with greater affluence and better health care.’
Population figures aside, the other plank of the Eurabia thesis is the argument on the formation and growth of a powerful Muslim lobby in Europe to which, it is claimed, European governments are enthralled, thus propelling Eurabia’s reach.
Underhill states, ‘The myth of Eurabia implies the existence of a united Islam, a bloc capable of collective and potentially dangerous action. The truth is that there are no powerful Muslim political movements in Europe, either continent wide or at the national level, and the divisions that separate Muslims worldwide, most obviously between Sunnis and Shiites, are apparent in Europe as well.'
That the Muslim communities of Europe are diverse is not contested, but it is inaccurate to suggest that Muslims haven’t in recent years sought to forge common, united platforms to address their many challenges, including those posed by Eurabia theory enthusiasts.
The presence or absence of ‘collective blocs’ or ‘powerful Muslim political movements’ at the European or national level should bear no correlation to ‘potentially dangerous action’ as suggested by Eurabia theorists. Were such movements or blocs to emerge, or nascent movements be strengthened, the Eurabia thesis would still prove false.
Underhill quotes the Gallup survey which illustrated the widespread loyalty to one’s nation that Muslims evince, sometimes greater than the level shown by White Europeans.
‘There's little evidence that Muslims themselves see any contradiction between allegiance to the state and their religious faith’, Underhill writes. And the few national Muslim organisations that have sprouted in Europe in recent years are demonstrative of just that.
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