While Europe slept
Fidel Sendagorta
23 de Abril, 2006
In the last two years quite a few books have been published in the US about the threat of Islamic fundamentalism in Europe. The last book on this topic is entitled “While Europe slept”. His author, Bruce Bawer, is a gay writer who fled from the bigotry of American society and moved to Europe, first to Amsterdan and then to Oslo. But quite soon he discovered that the European tolerance he was looking for was turning into submission to Islamic integrism’s intolerance. In many Washington desks, this is now a matter for serious consideration.
Last April 5th, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee held a number of hearings, bringing different experts to analyze the phenomenon of radical Islamism in Europe. Among others, Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, Ambassador Henry Crumpton, Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Robin Niblett, Executive Vicepresident of the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies presented their views. They all shared a similar concern about the interaction between yihadist terrorism and the growing alienation of many Muslim citizens in Europe, due both to the failure of integration policies and to the expansion of narrow and hateful interpretations of Islam .
The conclusion to many is clear: Europe has a problem and therefore the US has a problem too. In this regard, Europe recovers some of its strategic relevance lost after the Cold War. Now the threat is not a military one, but an ideological one. And the muslims who want to make their belief system compatible with European values are at the forefront of this new struggle.
These hearings in the US Senate can be consulted at:
www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_congress/task,view/id,189/
www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/rm/64192.htm
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