Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [160]
In this important respect—the competition for the world's best and brightest—the EU's strategy of making itself a magnet for nations has come up short in comparison to the U.S. strategy of making itself a magnet for individuals. Yet throughout the EU, anti-immigration sentiment seems to be rising. Why is this, especially given the EU's manifest commitment to Enlightenment values of equality, human rights, and nondiscrimination?
It is impossible to understand the current immigration debate in Europe without talking about Islam. Muslims are the fastest-growing segment of Europe's population. Some analysts predict that in fifteen years the EU will be 20 percent Muslim. In France, Muslims may already represent 10 percent (or perhaps even more) of the population, outnumbering all non-Catholic groups put together, including Protestants and Jews. In major Dutch cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Muslims are expected to become a majority of the population within a decade. (For purposes of comparison, Muslims represent only 1-2 percent of the U.S. population.) Yet this substantial and growing minority just happens to be a population that European tolerance—despite its asserted univer-salism—may have the most difficulty tolerating.31
For Europe, this problem goes deeper than the French ban on head scarves in public schools. Many in Eastern Europe still regard Christianity as central to Europe's heritage. In 2003, Poland's president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, attacked the “Godless tone” of the EU constitution, declaring it shameful that the constitution made no references “to the Christian values which are so important to the development of Europe.” At the same time, more secular Western Europeans increasingly see Islam as a potential threat to Europe's modern Enlightenment identity. The late Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci railed against “Muslim invaders,” engaged in a “Reverse Crusade” to conquer and profane Europe. And in the words of a Danish member of parliament, “It is…naive to think you can integrate Muslims into the Danish society…[Islam] is not only a religion but a fascist political ideology mixed with a religious fanaticism of the Middle Ages, an insult against the human rights and all other conditions necessary for creating a developed society.” Undoubtedly, one of the reasons for the broad popular resistance to Turkey's accession to the EU is Turkey's 68 million-strong Muslim population. Thus, with Islam, European tolerance—in terms of both territorial expansion and openness to immigration—has hit a potential wall.32
Meanwhile, within Europe, the relatively poor Muslim communities are at the center of an intensifying ethnic, religious, and racial conflict. Nearly no EU country has escaped these problems. Denmark's experience is illustrative. A largely homogeneous society and “once the epitome of Scandinavian liberalism,” Denmark in the late twentieth century confronted what was by its standards a sizable Islamic community, representing about 3 percent of the population. Hailing largely from Turkey, Morocco, Iraq, and Somalia, Denmark's Muslims are disproportionately poor and unemployed.
In the 2001 election, the extreme right-wing Danish People's Party (DPP) captured 12 percent of the vote, making it the third-largest political party in Denmark's parliament. The DPP's “party program” declares that “Denmark is not an immigrant country and has never been so. Therefore, we will not accept a transformation to a multiethnic society. Denmark belongs to the Danes.” According to the DPP's program, “To make Denmark multiethnic would mean that reactionary cultures, hostile to evolution, would break down our so-far stable, homogeneous society.” Meanwhile,