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Islamic Europe?

(Weekly Standard) Christopher Caldwell- On July 28, Princeton historian Bernard Lewis told the conservative Hamburg-based daily Die Welt that Europe would be Islamic by the end of this century "at the very latest." In the same interview, Lewis described the EU's break with the U.S. in terms of a "community of envy." ("Understandably, Europeans harbor some reservations about an America that has outstripped them. That's why Europeans can well understand the Muslims, who have similar feelings.") Asked whether the EU could serve as a global counterweight to the U.S., Lewis replied: "No." He saw only three countries as potential "global" players: definitely China and India, and possibly a revivified Russia. "Europe," he said, "will be part of the Arabic west, of the Maghreb." Bassam Tibi, a Syrian immigrant who is the most prominent moderate Muslim in Germany, wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Either Islam gets Europeanized, or Europe gets Islamized." Tibi seemed to warn that Europe did not have the ability to reject Islam, or the opportunity to steer it. "The problem is not whether the majority of Europeans is Islamic," he added, "but rather which Islam - sharia Islam or Euro-Islam - is to dominate in Europe."
2004-10-11 00:00:00
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