EUROPE'S FAILED MULTICULTURALISM
Por su interés y relevancia, he seleccionado el artículo que sigue para incluirlo en este sitio web. (L. B.-B.)
PARIS.
— For nearly 50 years Western Europe has weathered the storm of the Cold War,
living with the threat of the Soviet Union on its doorstep. Now Europe is waking
up to a new threat, only this time the danger comes from within.
From Paris to Amsterdam and from Brussels to Berlin, decades of liberal
open-door immigration policies are bearing their mark on Europe's domestic
politics, not to mention the demographics of the Old Continent.
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.
This influx of
immigrants has caused a knee-jerk reaction from worried Europeans who have
turned to right-wing parties for answers. Witness France's National Front leader
Jean-Marie Le Pen who came close to winning the last presidential election.
The failure of many immigrants to integrate has resulted in communities
living parallel to one another instead of blending. Exacerbating the problem,
Islamist activists have found refuge and anonymity among these immigrant
communities into which they can easily blend.
Europeans today are quick to complain their cities have been transformed,
many will argue not for the better. They will blame, often without
justification, much of what goes wrong — rising crime, hooliganism and drugs —
on the new arrivals. "Something need to be done about who we let in," complained
a Parisian woman after a teenage girl with a slightly dark complexion
accidentally bumped into her as she ran out of school. "Ah, poor France,"
lamented the woman.
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.)
Mr. Boyer acquired his expertise while working for the Ministry of the
Interior, the government department responsible for internal security. Mr. Boyer
admits much more is needed in educating Europe's Muslims from a cultural
perspective. Particularly the imams, says Mr. Boyer, should be made more aware
of European culture. Of France's 1,200 imams — or Muslim preachers — more than a
third do not speak French.
On Europe's lax policies, Mr. Boyer told United Press International, "There
should be more control on people [immigrants] and imams." When they break the
law, they should be sent away."
But Mr. Boyer also advocates turning to more moderate Muslims, particularly
the influential, and using their sway to positively influence the minds of
Europe's young Muslims.
To be sure, the large influx of immigrants arriving both legally and
clandestinely has come with its fair share of social problems. Partially at
fault is the failure of many of the new immigrants to assimilate into their
respective European societies. The CDU's Mrs. Merkel said foreigners must accept
"certain values and standards," such as learning the language.
Many European countries face similar problems in trying to integrate their
immigrant populations. France, which has a long history of separating church and
state, was confronted with the issue of Muslim schoolgirls wearing veils, or
headscarves, in public schools. This was a practice that would have countered
strict rules meant to keep religion out of politics and state affairs, and vice
versa.
After a tumultuous national debate peppered with street protests and
demonstrations by supporters and opponents of the headscarf ban, the state
banned all outward religious signs, including Islamic headscarves, yarmulkes and
"large" crucifixes.
A far greater problem than headscarves has been the increase in Islamist
activism in recent years. According to Mr. Boyer, much of the recruiting of
Islamists occurs in Europe's jails.
Europe has not been immune to terrorism, most of it homegrown — the actions
of Basque, Corsican or Irish separatists. Some will say Europeans naively
believed they were immune from Islamist terrorism.
The real eye-opener came last March when a series of bombs exploded in train
stations in the Spanish capital, Madrid, killing nearly 200 people. Jose Maria
Aznar's government quickly blamed ETA, the Basque separatist organization, but,
as UPI was first to report, the attacks turned out to be the work of Islamist
militants with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
As if that was not enough, another crime further jolted Europe, the brutal
slaying of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands by a
Muslim man. Van Gogh's murder followed the killing of Pim Fortuyn, the openly
homosexual former columnist who rocked the very core of the Netherlands' liberal
political establishment by decrying the country's immigration policy. He was
gunned down in May 2002.
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.
Claude Salhani is
international editor of United Press International.