The
conservatives have made important points about the difficulty of assimilation,
the threat of radicalization, and the likelihood of Paris-style and
Cologne-style violence in European cities. But they have also trafficked in more
apocalyptic predictions — fears of a “Eurabia,” of mass Islamification — that
were somewhat harder to credit. Until recently, Europe’s assimilation challenge
looked unpleasant but not insurmountable, and the likelihood of
Yugoslavian-style balkanization relatively remote....
If you believe that an aging, secularized, heretofore-mostly-homogeneous society is likely to peacefully absorb a migration of that size and scale of cultural difference, then you have a bright future as a spokesman for the current German government.
You’re also a fool. Such a transformation promises increasing polarization among natives and new arrivals alike. It threatens not just a spike in terrorism but a rebirth of 1930s-style political violence. The still-imaginary France Michel Houellebecq conjured up in his novel “Submission,” in which nativists and Islamists brawl in the streets, would have a very good chance of being realized in the German future.
This need not happen. But prudence requires doing everything possible to prevent it. That means closing Germany’s borders to new arrivals for the time being. It means beginning an orderly deportation process for able-bodied young men. It means giving up the fond illusion that Germany’s past sins can be absolved with a reckless humanitarianism in the present.
It means that Angela Merkel must go — so that her country, and the continent it bestrides, can avoid paying too high a price for her high-minded folly.
If you believe that an aging, secularized, heretofore-mostly-homogeneous society is likely to peacefully absorb a migration of that size and scale of cultural difference, then you have a bright future as a spokesman for the current German government.
You’re also a fool. Such a transformation promises increasing polarization among natives and new arrivals alike. It threatens not just a spike in terrorism but a rebirth of 1930s-style political violence. The still-imaginary France Michel Houellebecq conjured up in his novel “Submission,” in which nativists and Islamists brawl in the streets, would have a very good chance of being realized in the German future.
This need not happen. But prudence requires doing everything possible to prevent it. That means closing Germany’s borders to new arrivals for the time being. It means beginning an orderly deportation process for able-bodied young men. It means giving up the fond illusion that Germany’s past sins can be absolved with a reckless humanitarianism in the present.
It means that Angela Merkel must go — so that her country, and the continent it bestrides, can avoid paying too high a price for her high-minded folly.
Eurabia will never happen. This isn't even the
third-most-serious Islamic invasion of Europe. Just remember that if the
repatriations are delayed too long, and "kill them all" eventually
becomes public policy, it was the multiculturalists and immigrationists who are
to blame. Not the ultranationalists. They didn't want their future
"victims" there in the first place.
This is a continent-wide war, and it's not going to take 700 years for Europe to rid itself of the invaders this time. Unlike the United States, partition isn't an option.
This is a continent-wide war, and it's not going to take 700 years for Europe to rid itself of the invaders this time. Unlike the United States, partition isn't an option.
