Hanson predicts radical shift in European attitudes toward Islam

Since it was less than 1,000 words long, and therefore more likely to be cogent, I read a Victor Hanson article at Real Clear Politics that someone had sent to me. Though Hanson persists in using the stupid term “Islamic fascism” (twice), he makes some interesting and hopeful predictions. He says that as a result of the cartoon jihad, there will be a radical, though quiet, shift in Europe’s stance toward Islam. The Europeans will praise Islam while making Islamic immigration far more difficult. They will continue to attack the U.S. involvement in Iraq, while secretly coordinating with the U.S. on a host of international issues. They will withhold public condemnation of Hamas, while slowly pulling the plug on subsidies to Hamas. They will continue publicly to advocate bringing Turkey into the EU, while privately killing the measure. Finally, now that the Europeans are aware of the Islamic threat yet lack any credible defense forces of their own, they will wish for a more assertive and “unilateral”-style leadership from the U.S. on Europe’a behalf, but may, to their chagrin, find it lacking, for two reasons. First, President Bush seems to have learned only too well the multilateralist and appeasing lessons the Euros wanted him to learn, for example, in his acceding to the European in the Iran nuclear issue and even siding with the Muslims in the cartoon issue. Second, the Europeans’ bigoted contempt for America has engendered an anti-European animosity on America’s part that may not dissipate overnight.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 15, 2006 06:17 PM | Send