WHAT ABORTION IS DOING TO EUROPE —

Europe’s Islamic Problem  

DATE OF PUBLICATION: SEPTEMBER 2011
WM 1617
Vance Ferrell

PDF File

More abortions are carried out in Britain than any other country in Europe, research has shown. It has overtaken France, which has a larger population —to become the abortion capital of the continent.
For the sake of convenience, European women are aborting their babies. But all these child deaths in Europe have brought serious problems to that continent. A significant fact is that Europeans are becoming a vanishing race!
In their place, Muslims from Turkey, the Near East, and North Africa are fast becoming a major part of the population. —And Islam brings with it very serious problems.
Many analysts say most of Western Europe’s Muslims are poorly integrated into society. There are closed ethnic neighborhoods and high crime rates in Muslim communities, calls for use of sharia law in Europe, the wearing of the veil, and other examples as evidence of a conflict with European values. Oxford University scholar, Tariq Ramadan, wrote in the Christian Science Monitor: “Over the last two decades Islam has become connected to so many controversial debates . . it is difficult for ordinary citizens to embrace this new Muslim presence as a positive factor.” Fears over a possible major demographic shift toward Islam as well as ongoing Muslim assimilation problems highlight the continuing divide between Europe and its Muslim population.
The rise of Islamic regimes after the Iranian revolution in 1979—and more recently the increase in terrorism—has called attention to the fact that many of these immigrants were not only ethnically different but also Muslim.
The European Union’s June 2009 strategy report on immigration (PDF) shows a total of 18.5 million registered non-EU nationals and an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants living in the European Union. According to a 2008 Brookings study, the EU countries with the largest percentages of Muslims are France at an estimated 8%, Netherlands estimated at 6%, Germany at 4%, and the United Kingdom at 3% of the population. And Muslim populations exceed 20% in some major EU cities.
The total Muslim population, including immigrant and native born, in Western Europe is about 20 million of the EU’s 500 million residents.
The continuing influx of immigration from Islamic countries, along with higher immigrant birth rates and lower native European birth rates, means Muslims in Western Europe will significantly increase in coming decades.
Experts say Muslims in Europe are more likely than the EU general population to be poor and live in segregated, crime-prone neighborhoods, according to a 2007 report from the Center for European Policy Studies.
However, other analysts find that many Muslims self-segregate because of language barriers—and especially their Muslim religion. Jocelyne Cesari, a Harvard professor and author of a 2004 book, When Islam and Democracy Meet, argues that, in order to protect themselves, some Muslims seek closed communities similar to the Amish community in the United States. She says Europeans need to learn to differentiate between religious “conservatives and Jihadists.”
High crime rates and dependency on the social welfare system also contribute to European feelings, that there is a Muslim problem.
Lack of economic opportunity among poor Muslim populations has also contributed to tensions in recent years. EU Muslims tend to have high unemployment rates. Unemployment rates for Pakistani and Bangladeshi women were nearly twice as high as for other minority women. A 2009 report from the Quilliam Foundation, a London-based organization focused on counter-extremism issues, says polling of South Asian Muslim women found that unemployment was less because of religion and culture than because of poor job and language skills (PDF), a lack of childcare, or confidence.
Religion and Identity. Muslims in Germany, Britain, and France were twice as likely as the general public to consider religion a significant part of their daily lives, according to a 2007 Gallup poll. A Pew 2006 poll shows that Muslims in Europe are much more likely to identify themselves by their religion before their nationality.
Muslim culture is at odds with Europe on issues such as freedom of expression, the rights of women, and the separation of church and state.
The focus of the debate over Muslim immigration and integration is connected to fears of radicalism underscored by terror attacks in London and Madrid and a host of other incidents and arrests.