[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
This is the lead article on the Drudge Report today:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2015-01-08/europe-s-islam-debate-erupts-as-paris-killers-at-large
It’s worth reading. Europe is in a shambles again for a third time in a century. Any thoughts on what’s happening in Europe? What could those of us in North America and Australia and Japan and elsewhere in the West learn from this? Will we be having troubles on the scale of Europe’s troubles soon?
Something I found interesting; in the decade following the 9/11 attacks the global Muslim population went through a dramatic population boom going from 22% of the world’s population in 2001 to 30% of the world’s population by 2011 and even higher today. The years since 9/11 have also seen a dramatic rise in the number of migrants from Muslim countries. Indeed, in Southern and Western Europe it has become a veritable flood as waves of poor economic migrants flow Northwards into the waiting arms of nanny-States just begging to be taken advantage of.
My honest opinion is that people are so disoriented by modernity and lack of values that they crave the austere formalism and certainty of Islam. I think some people in the West have thought ahead and realised that their grandchildren may live in a very different world and will adopt, perhaps forcibly, perhaps not so much, the religion and culture of Islam. Can you imagine your grandchildren or great grandchildren one day becoming practicing Muslims and living in some sort of theocratic state?
Any thoughts?
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Well, I think the idea of the EU was better then the actuality of it. Merging economies may seem like a good idea, but the inevitable after birth of it also making universal social policy forced on vastly different cultures who tend to be extremely patriotic is divisive.
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The creation of the EU made it extremely easy to hide. A lack of identity and the ability to move freely from country to country, seems to me to be inviting to those who have radical ideas.
A robust welfare program afford people time maneuver without having to be concerned with survival.
Being such an entity, while also being geopolitically close to the most dangerous places on Earth is an open invitation to those who wish to export radical islam to the west.
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Terrorism in Europe, I believe, is going to give rise to an ideological trench warfare. While we talk of separating the ‘good’ muslims from the ‘bad’, such ideals in Europe are falling by the wayside. Europeans, it seems to me, are tired of making, or even trying to make the distinction. My experience is that, though more subtle, Europeans tend to be more racist than what we are used to in the U.S. I think the distinction between ‘types’ of muslims are going to, more and more, stop being made. While seemingly more tolerant, initially, of muslim immigrants into Europe, as more and more acts of terror happen in Europe, the people are going to turn on their immigration population. They don’t care if your good or bad, they want your ass out. I think that is the future, I believe it’s already starting. The backlash against islam in Europe, is growing. So it’s going to lead to more of the muslims being radicalize, and the populations in Europe grow completely intolerant of muslims, good, bad or indifferent. [/quote]
I would argue it was a terrible idea, executed perfectly. It was inevitably going to result in the less prosperous parts of Europe migrating to the more successful parts. Combine that with the mutual recognition of refugee status and you have a recipe for disaster. The least prosperous peoples and a high proportion of the influx of refugees that enter anywhere in Europe will all go to the UK, the Nordic states, or Germany.
The UK is turning to the less observably racist UKIP, while France and the Nordic states run headlong into the far right. FN will be a major player in the next French election and if they win, then the beast is well and truly out of its cage.
I cannot imagine how continental Europe will look in 20 years if something doesn’t change. The UK and Ireland will likely exit and indulge in isolationism if the worst materializes, as they have done with continental politics many times before.