October 13, 2003

TOLERATING THEMSELVES INTO OBLIVION:

The European dilemma (Uwe Siemon-Netto, 10/9/2003, UPI)

Syrian-born Bassam Tibi, who teaches political science in Goettingen, Germany, never ceases to remind his audiences around the world that Islam is a religion rich in facets but Islamism is a political ideology.

This ideology, claims Hildegard Becker, is subverting the German equivalent of France's Muslim Council. A specialist on Islam, Becker warns of the movement's two-faced nature: "Vis-a-vis Germans, and in the German language, (the Muslim organizations keep insisting that they are abiding) by the Basic Law (constitution) and desire... the 'dialogue' (with the rest of society). But speaking to Turks in their language, demagogic slogans against German democracy, pluralism and the allegedly morally rotten German society prevail."

As in other parts of Europe, a mushy liberalism, particularly in the judiciary and the churches, stands in the way of a democratic Islam taking root in Germany. As Ursula Spuler-Stegemann, an Islamic studies professor at the university of Marburg notes, "Our clergy have a goofy tendency to schmooze with Islamic umbrella organizations rather than talk to grassroots Muslims here."

"In truth," she goes on, "these Muslim umbrella organizations are pushing purely national and Islamist ideologies, which in their countries of origin are justly suppressed."


When mushy liberalism meets hard Islamicism, who would you bet on?

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 13, 2003 01:47 PM
Comments

Are you kidding? The recrudescence of German militarism is right around the corner. I've been saying so for years.

So far I'm wrong, but I'll be right in the long run.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 13, 2003 05:26 PM

And they'll pay for it how and staff a military how? I can see exterminationism, but not militarism.

Posted by: OJ at October 13, 2003 05:33 PM

Depends on when they wake up.

They are in some danger, to be sure; but then so are those Moslem communities, should elements within them believe too rashly in the inevitability of their ideology.

Posted by: Barry Meislin at October 13, 2003 06:21 PM

All it will take is one 9/11 scale attack on the Father Land.

Posted by: Jeff Guinn at October 13, 2003 08:54 PM

They do have the world's third biggest economy. Paying for it will not be a problem.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 13, 2003 09:51 PM

They've got debt levels as high or higher than ours, a more rapidly imploding welfare state and if they put their young men in uniform there'll be no one but Turks paying taxes. It's systematic liquidation or they're toast.

Posted by: OJ at October 13, 2003 11:38 PM

Often, movements fail on the eve of their biggest victories.
For instance, in the late Eighties, some fundamentalist Christian activists were successful in gaining control of some school boards in Kansas, by winning elections. However, once in charge, they spent their time on nonsense like teaching Creationism in science class, and the voters promptly booted them, next election.

Perhaps, should Muslim populations in the UK or Germany swell large enough for there to be significant power-sharing with the Establishment, the non-Muslim population will decide that enough is enough. After all, since the majority of Muslims in Europe and America are immigrants, it's always possible to turn off the migrant spigot, unless they comprise the majority of the population.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 14, 2003 03:38 AM

Michael -- The answer, if there is one, will have to come from within Islam.

Posted by: David Cohen at October 14, 2003 07:42 AM

It may already have.

Commentators like Daniel Pipes have tried to differentiate Islam from Islamicism, and for his
pains has been pilloried and calumnied by the leaders of the Moslem community.

Leaving one where, exactly?

Posted by: Barry Meislin at October 14, 2003 08:17 AM
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