On French troubles I wrote..Should Europe fear Muslims?
The large immigrant populations of Turks, North Africans and South Asians are at the crossroads of destiny. They carefully study the reactions of their host governments to terrorist blackmail; an accommodative posture like those of Chirac infuses "radicalism" whereas non-accommodative posture like that of Blair's encourages moderation.
iranian.ws
aifdemocracy.org
dailytimes.com.pk
Should Europe fear Muslims?
Oct 15, 2004
Iqbal Latif, London
The large immigrant populations of Turks, North Africans and South Asians are at the crossroads of destiny. They carefully study the reactions of their host governments to terrorist blackmail; an accommodative posture like those of Chirac infuses "radicalism" whereas non-accommodative posture like that of Blair's encourages moderation.
Europeans and West are horror-struck by these trends; something prevents them from even discussing the subject. Civilizations don't just disappear; others who are hungrier, more aggressive and more energetic overtake them. We should not believe that in this modern day and age, the Caucasian race would disappear; the lack of the fertility argument is as hollow as Malthusian predictions.
Over a period of time, with education, environment and a healthy unbiased milieu, these societies will assimilate, so the ghost of "demographic changes" is implausible and does not stand the test of transparent scrutiny; it may be very emotional and sensationalistic, but in actuality, the only thing that can make a difference is the present war on terror and not the European policy of appeasement. The war on terror is an ultimate milestone to achieve; a definite stand established to remove the radical and extremist elements from spreading their brand of "world order" so that the moderate face of Islam emerges.
With Osama bin Laden and his cronies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Europeans have totally failed to understand the threat emanating from these cavemen. Although long term demographic changes may allow further opportunities to medievalists to enforce their brand of world order, the goal in the short term is quite obvious and will stop at nothing but perpetual jihad. Indeed their interpretation of the Talibinised version of medievalism is a cassus belli in itself. From their hidden underground pulpits OBL demonstrates to the already vicious circumcised "extremists" the virtues of "destruction", rage built on impotence and collective failures of their doctrine so far to bring prosperity to the region of Islam.
It is about establishment of set precedent of "order of governance" based on antiquated and outmoded traditions. The real fruit, which the extremists are aiming to pluck at, are Iran and Pakistan, and Turkey and Saudi Arabia that fall in their radical laps. Once in control of the "holy land" and the energy resources of "petrolistan", joined with the nuclear strategic assets of Pakistan with revolutionary zeal of Iran, and the geographical proximity of Turkey to Europe, they will place their foot on the jugular of the global energy sources and wreak havoc on global economies. No one but the Europeans would suffer the most from this eventual outcome. Historically, in the 1400 years history of Islam, it has never seen unification within its factions. But faced with a "common enemy," these extremists with their various ideological strains have buried their hatchet, so to speak, and have combined forces for the first time in centuries to spread their fangs of terror. The worst part is that in history it has always been the extremists who ruled over silent majority moderates, as later are more vociferous and belligerent in the use of force to curb freedom and dissent. Tyrannies in lands of Islam are result of bulldozing of "silent majorities" the propensity of silent majorities of Islam to yield into "holy" totalitarianism is astounding. It is for this that not a single true pluralistic democracy exists from Maghreb to extreme geographical end of the Islamic world. Strongman reigns supreme on the psyche of the entire ummah! From King Mohammed VI the sovereign, Commander of the Faithful to Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei the unique brand of strongman culture clench the silent majorities in total submission.
The extension of this order to the hinterland of Europe looks likely in a few decades as demographic pattern work their way, but instantaneous cowing of their own societies into compliance will help promulgation of the ultimate objective of "doctrine of Allah" over the gullible, very realizable in near term. Once the "nation of Islam" is cowed into submission, the dream of "conquista" of Andalusia and beyond Pyrenees becomes more realistic.
Humanity today is confronting the challenge of "intellectual rearing" of the ticking time bomb of demographic changes imminent in Europe. Our determination today will help bring up the nurturing of this huge populace increase in a "restrained" manner. Any other course will lead to future ethnic wars of cleansing. Imagine a fanatical arc of instability spanning out from Morocco to South Asia, added with a burgeoning Europe that would be majority Islamic by the end of this century, all raised on sights and sounds of victory of radicalism.
Only one authority stands between them achieving their intention to establish an archaic version of the "realm of Allah" on earth and conversion of the entire Islamic world to their brand of "radicalism," that one clout is the resolve of the "civilized world and a few good men" to preserve the basic rights of mankind at large. It is the only hope of European nations if they understand and realize that moderating the flame of fanatical extremists is the only way for people to commingle on the bank of Seine-Rhine.
"Failure of fanatics" in this war on terror will be the "success of moderates." Nothing works better than success. Today, at these crossroads, if peace in the future has to be secured, the restrained and accommodative face of Islam has to be supported. By yielding to suicide bombings and beheading threats, we will make radicalism as the currency of order within future Islamic societies. Our follies of today will help breed a generation that will be alien to cohabitation. It would be racist to worry about the demographic time bomb if the mindset of that "collective" is ready to cohabitate and believes in pluralism and tolerance, virtues of mankind at large. This is the only challenge that Europe faces and the key to this quandary lies with their present actions. Sadly, so far, the actions fall short of what will mutate the "mind" of this huge group towards peaceful coexistence; those immigrants will see that blackmail does pay. |
