The European Quagmire

When the riots that have swept France first began nearly two weeks ago, I was surprised only that something like this had not happened sooner. I have written several times on the woes facing Europe, and none of these quandaries are more intractable or more potentially disastrous than the continent's deepening immigration crisis. All across the urban centers of Europe, Muslim immigrants and their descendants have isolated themselves in ghettoes, partly due to being shunned by Europeans, but mostly due to their own religious beliefs mandating separation from an infidel society. In these ghettoes, unemployment among youths can run as high as forty percent, and Muslims find themselves accepting social welfare payments from the very societies their imans command them to reject. These isolated but rapidly expanding communities have become a cauldron of resentment, alienation, humiliation, poverty, and Islamic extremism.

Columnist Mark Steyn, writing in the London Telegraph, calls the unrest in France "an early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war." That characterization seems a bit alarmist to me--at this point, the riots seem more spontaneous than orchestrated-- but there is no disputing the fact that Europe faces a crisis that will only worsen in the years ahead. Demographically, old Europe is dying. But as the last few days have shown, its death may not be a peaceful one.