European lslamdom: Part II

The First part of this series is here: Islam
and the Future of Europe.


Dr. Jenkins takes a much more optimistic view of Europe's future than I do. I hope he's right, but I have responded to a few of his statements in this post. Please do
read the whole interview at OUP blog.

Will be in Italy later this month, Spain next month. Both trips have a good amount of business involved, including meeting with folks focused on reaching Muslims, or
who may be considering such action.

Excerpts:

He says: Critically too, I’m
not sure that many of the incidents that people cite when they warn
about “Eurabia” arise from the issue of Islam as a religion, as opposed
to conflicts of race and class, and the best example of that would be
the French riots of 2005. I see very little evidence of any religious
motivation there. This does not mean that such outbreaks are not
serious, but governments have to respond to them differently than they
would if they represented a true religious movement.

I answer: I don't think so. I mean, if you live here in good ole' Dar al-Islam for a few years you see pretty quickly that even non-practicing Muslims have a fervent devotion to their religion as an idea, as a concept. Some people are devoted to it as a religion, but others are devoted to
it as a political system, and others still as a pillar of Arab culture,
others as an economic system capable of eradicating injustice and
poverty.

Islam is not a religion. It is a civilization.

Let me say it again: Islam is not only a religion, but an entire civilization.

He says: Also, we should not
complain about Muslim failure to assimilate into European societies
when these populations have been there such a short time. Think how
poorly assimilated America’s minorities were in the 1920s, which is a
fair comparison - about thirty years after the beginning of the main
influx.

I answer: But there was a Christian foundation for integration, and a Christian desire for integration. Neither of these
is present in Europe. Muslims do not want to integrate, for that would
be to leave Islam--which is superior toEuropeanism . There was also the
idea that new immigrants would integrate into something, the American
dream, if you like. That is not present in Europe. What is there to
integrate into in Europe?

He says: Finally, forecasts
about Muslims taking over Europe assume that Muslim birth rates will
continue to be very high. All immigrant populations have high fertility
in the first generation, but usually that usually falls within a
generation or so, and that is exactly what we are seeing in Europe.
Moreover, the home countries for most of Europe’s migrants have
experienced a dramatic fall in fertility just in the past decade, and
that will certainly have its impact in Europe itself.

I answer: yes, and Muslim
immigration into Europe will continue at a fast pace based on current
trends. So there will be many, many new 'first generations' of Muslim
immigrants. In addition to the previous generations which are
reproducing at a lower rate. We have also seen that it is second and
third generation European Muslims (like 7/7 in London) which tend
towards traditional Islamic militant worship (what the West derisively
and ignorantly calls terrorism).

All in all, I respect Jenkins as a great historian. But his scholarship on Islam in Europe is entirely unrealistic and fails to grasp the power of Islam as a
pan-ethniccivilizational and totalitarian ideology.

I have posted quite a bit about Europe because I think it will be pivotal in
the coming decades. I also think that Europe is, in some way,
foundational to the faith.

Here is a recent
post on a review of Jenkins' book "God's Continent."


Here is a link to an older
interview with him.