A Prediction for Europe

Most of the time (and by most I mean 99% of the time) discussing politics on an online forum is a waste of time and effort.  I still plead guilty however.

Ehhh…it’s a hobby.

But occasionally something worthwhile turns up.  I was discussing the future of the West with a Sunni Muslim from the Middle East who has a view of Western decline very similar to a Pat Buchanan style Paleoconservative; the decline of religion and morality in the West will chip away at Western institutions until they crumble.  He has his own version of a life boat, Ta Da!  Islam will ride in and save the day!   I don’t think Islam is as much riding in as boating and walking in.  Nor do I view it as saving the day. That’s more like my version of dystopia, as if Charlton Heston looks up from the beach and sees a giant Minaret.

But before Islam establishes its glorious new world order in Europe, he envisioned a  “bounce back” and revival of Christianity; however briefly.  I was surprised at his theory, because it parallels one that I’ve had for years regarding the future of Europe.

Basically what I’ve envisioned is this:

The demographic and Islamic conversion in Europe will continue, but as the percentages of Muslims grow they will flex their political muscle and slowly remake their societies in an Islamic image. Muslims are about 5% in the UK and about 7% in France, but what happens when they’re 25 and 27 percent?  Either one or more of the current political parties will Islamicize or there will be new Islamic political parties that will share power (if you are at all familiar with the plot of Houellebecq’s Submission you basically know how that will work).

Eventually Europeans, and by that I mean the native peoples who are by and large Christian, whether devout or not, will have a WTF moment, and realize that if they don’t do anything to stop the trend, the outcome is becoming a minority in their own countries, with all the joy that being a non Muslim minority in a Muslim majority country brings.  That’s when you have civil war.  Imagine Yugoslavia, spread out across the continent.

But I can’t imagine that happening until it’s too late to do anything about it. And I don’t think it will necessarily bring a rebirth of Christianity with it, although it could.

Do I think anything could put a stop to this sort of future?  I think that moment has passed. Very notable with last week’s Trump proposal to ban Muslims, European politicians criticized Trump on that, something I think is pretty much unprecedented for European politicians to do; criticize an American Presidential candidate who hasn’t even won the nomination yet.  The fact that they would do that is more than just signaling how morally upright they are, it’s a political signaling too to their own constituencies.  For Europeans, it’s already too late to ban Muslim immigration.  They are already too large a part of the European electorate.  President Hollande vowed to take in even more Syrian refugees.  That will show ISIS!

So long term, eventually you have a Muslim Western Europe, at least as far as political power goes.  That doesn’t mean that even the majority in those countries would necessarily be Muslims, but it seems unlikely they could unite in any meaningful way. Those things only seem to become possible and thinkable when it’s already too late.

 

 

Trump’s Muslim Ban Had a Beta Test

Donald Trump’s call for a ban on entry of Muslims, even if never implemented, has been worth it due to the hysterical reaction to it from his political foes.  Words like Hitler, Fascist, and Racist were bandied about, as well as calls that he has disqualified himself from running for President.  And that’s just from the Republicans.  The Democrats are even more upset!

Meanwhile, a lot of people are wondering why the heck we didn’t do this right after 9/11.  The truth is that we did start to set the groundwork for it. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System was set up in 2002.  It required extra screening, biometrics, and interrogation of people traveling to the US on visas from several category countries (i.e. Muslim) based on level of threat.  Visa holders from these countries were required to register at ports of entry and ports of departure.

So for a while, the government actually did what it was supposed to do. The program was mostly suspended in 2011 but it provided a guide that the government could actually do what it should have been doing in the first place. Unfortunately almost 3000 Americans had to die in a horrific terrorist attack committed by visa holders to take it seriously.

But frankly I lean more toward Trump’s idea. That goes the NSEERS program one better. Why allow any Muslim immigration to the US?  What is the argument in favor of that?  The reason to oppose it seems obvious.

Primarily, Islam and Western Civilization are incompatible.  I can’t think of a single Western nation that’s benefitted from Muslim immigration; quite the contrary. Nor can I think of a single Muslim nation that is open to Western values.  Turkey did try.  I’ll give it that.  Ataturk made a real effort to Westernize Turkey, but the call of culture, blood, and Allah was too strong for it, and now it’s sliding towards an Islamist regime.

The NSEERS program provided a guide to how to do it.  I would resurrect the Country categories:

Group 1: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan or Syria

Group 2: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Group 3: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia

Group 4: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait

Resurrect the screening for tourist and student visas and basically prohibit any other visa categories, including fiancé K-1 visas.  Based on what happened in San Bernardino, if ever there was a case of looking for love in all the wrong places that was it.

 

The San Bernardino Shooting Might have been stopped

The political firefight over the San Bernardino shooting terrorist act started almost before the event was over, with President Obama calling for gun control even while the suspects were still on the loose.  Morning Joe seemed to think this was another Sandy Hook and peppered all of their interviewees with gun control related questions.

But for me, the take away of this event is the utter failure of “see something; say something.”  As reported by CBS:

A man who has been working in the area said he noticed a half-dozen Middle Eastern men in the area in recent weeks, but decided not to report anything since he did not wish to racially profile those people.

Americans have been taught, and have learned the lesson, that it’s better that multiple people die horribly than to be thought of as racist.

Political Correctness kills.