Assimilation of Euro Muslims isn't happening

Europe's Failed Multiculturism

By Claude Salhani

The arrival of several million immigrants — mostly from North Africa, Turkey and Southwest Asia, and mostly Muslims — has forever changed the face of a once largely white, overwhelmingly Christian Europe. Germany alone has some 7 million non-German residents, the majority of them Turks.

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Many Europeans bemoan that immigrants are not integrating. Angela Merkel, the German opposition center-right Christian Democratic Union leader, addressing the CDU annual conference in Dusseldorf earlier this week, stressed the importance of "patriotism and conservative values." She remarked on Germany's failure to nurture multiculturalism, urging immigrants to identify with Western "cultural values based on freedom and democracy."

She is not alone in her concerns. Alain Boyer, the sous-prefet of Reims, a region famous for its fine champagnes, is one of France's leading experts on Islam. He agrees that not enough is being done culturally to integrate Muslims in Europe. (The prefet is the central government's regional administrator.)

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Fortuyn and Van Gogh's killings have caused furor in the once easygoing Netherlands, forcing the Dutch to re-examine themselves. In a recent poll, the Dutch voted Fortuyn the most popular figure in the country — ahead of painters Rembrandt and Vincent Van Gogh, Jewish diarist Anne Frank, football legend Johan Cruyff and Prince William of Orange.

Criticism of Islam has started to come out in the open. Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, called Islam a "backward religion," saying it has not gone through the "reformation as Christianity or Judaism." He received death threats and remains in hiding.

Maybe a clearer image of how Europe really views Muslims will become apparent later this month, when on Dec. 17, the European Union decides if Turkey — a country with close to 70 million people, 99 percent of them Muslims — will be admitted into the EU. Some Europeans believe admitting Turkey will have a soothing effect. Others say it is naive to think it will deter Islamist terrorism.