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§ "The greatest difference is that in Europe, politics and
religion have been separated from one another, but in the case of Islam it is
religion that determines politics" — Zoltan Balog, Hungary's Minister for
Human Resources.
§ It is no coincidence that President Donald Trump chose Poland, a
country that fought both Nazism and Communism, to call on the West to show a
little willingness in its existential fight against the new totalitarianism:
radical Islam.
§ "Possessing weapons is one thing, and possessing the will to
use them is another thing altogether". — Professor William Kilpatrick,
Boston College.
In a historic speech to an enthusiastic
Polish crowd before the meeting of the G20 Summit leaders, US President Donald
Trump described the West's
battle against "radical Islamic terrorism" as the way to protect
"our civilization and our way of life". Trump asked if the West had
the will to survive:
"Do we have the confidence in our
values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens
to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our
civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?"
Trump's question might find an answer in
Eastern Europe, where he chose to deliver his powerful speech.
After an Islamist suicide-bomber murdered
22 concert-goers in Manchester, including two Poles, Poland's prime minister,
Beata Szydło, said that Poland would not be "blackmailed" into
accepting thousands of refugees under the European Union's quota system. She urged Polish lawmakers to
safeguard the country and Europe from the scourges of Islamist terrorism and
cultural suicide:
"Where are you headed, Europe? Rise
from your knees and from your lethargy, or you will be crying over your
children every day".
A few days later, the European Union
announced that it would begin proceedings to punish Poland, Hungary
and the Czech Republic for their refusal to accept migrants as the European
Commission had decided under a 2015 scheme it created.
After Szydło's speech, Zoltan Balog,
Hungary's Minister for Human Resources, declared:
"Islam is a major culture and
religion, which we must respect, but Europe has a different identity, and it is
clear that these two cultures are incapable of coexisting without conflict...
The greatest difference is that in Europe, politics and religion have been
separated from one another, but in the case of Islam it is religion that
determines politics".
That is why Viktor Orban has been
labelled as "Europe's enemy within"
-- because he spelled out what the President of the European Commission,
Jean-Claude Juncker, will never do: "Keeping Europe Christian".
These speeches from Visegrad officials --
the European group made up of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia
-- are just two examples of deep ideological divisions between Western European
countries and those in Central- and Eastern Europe.
There has been a growing tendency of
Visegrad leaders to depict Islam as a civilizational threat
to Christian Europe. If, in Western Europe, Christianity has been dramatically
cast aside by public opinion and severely restricted by EU official rules, in
Eastern Europe new polls reveal that
Christianity is as robust and patriotic as ever. That is why Trump called
Poland "the faithful nation".
That is why US Catholic magazines are openly asking if there is a "Christian reawakening"
in Eastern Europe. Slovakia approved a law
to prevent Islam from becoming an official state religion.
These Central- and Eastern European
countries know that Western Europe's multiculturalism has been a recipe for
terror attacks, for a start. As Ed West of The Spectator
noted:
"Not all of Europe, of course.
Central Europe, chiefly Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, remain largely
safe from the terror threat, despite the former in particular being a Nato
player in the Middle East. It is precisely because the reasons for this are so
obvious that they cannot be mentioned. Poland is 0.1 percent Muslim, most of
whom are from a long-settled Tartar community, Britain is 5 percent, France 9
percent and Brussels 25 percent, and those numbers are growing".
What is presumably "obvious"
here is that Poland and Hungary are not hit by Islamic terror attacks because
they have very few Muslims, while Belgium and UK it is the reverse. Europe
would probably have been safer if it had followed Eastern Europe's example.
Eastern Europe not only shows a greater
understanding of Western culture than Western Europe does; these Eastern
countries have also been far more generous to NATO, the bulwark of their
independence and security. Culture and security go hand-in-hand: if you take
your own culture and civilization seriously, you will be ready to defend them.
A brief look at the NATO's members' military spending
as a percentage of GDP shows that Poland meets the 2% target, unlike all the
Western European countries. Only five of NATO's 28 members -- the U.S., Greece,
Poland, Estonia and the U.K. -- meet the 2% target. Where is France? And
Belgium? And Germany? And The Netherlands?
"Unlike most of its NATO and
European peers," Agnia Grigas, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, explained, "Poland
has for the past two decades consistently viewed defense as a priority issue,
and as a result, has been slowly but steadily emerging as the bedrock of
European security". Poland -- unlike Belgium, Italy and other European
countries -- is not a "free rider" but a trustworthy partner to its
US ally. Poland showed loyal support to the United States both in Afghanistan
and Iraq, where its troops fought the Taliban and helped to topple Saddam
Hussein.
It is no coincidence that President Trump
selected Poland, a country that fought both Nazism and Communism, to call on
the West to show a little willingness in its existential fight against the new
totalitarianism: radical Islam.
"The West will continue to have the
military edge for a good time to come, but possessing weapons is one thing, and
possessing the will to use them is another thing altogether", wrote William Kilpatrick, a
professor at Boston College. "The West is strong militarily, but weak
ideologically. It lacks civilizational confidence".
That is why it is critical that Eastern
Europe continues to be a strong voice of dissent in the EU project. It might provide
just the cultural confidence that European bureaucrats dramatically lack -- at
the peril of Europe itself.
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.