Europe, Globalization and the Coming Caliphate

By Bat Ye'or

Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011

224 pp., $24.95

This past week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed an upgrade for the Arab-Palestinians' U.N. status from "nonmember observer" to "nonmember observer state," plus a one-year timetable for establishing a Palestinian state.  In light of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's request for a unilateral declaration of statehood through the United Nations and a likely showdown at the Security Council with the United States promising to veto any Palestinian resolution, Sarkozy's proposal allegedly attempted to lower the "risk of engendering a cycle of violence in the Middle East." 

In truth, there has been almost non-stop Islamic terrorism in Israel, a refusal by the Palestinian Authority to recognize the Jewish state and plentiful distribution of maps that turn the entire state of Israel into a state dubbed "Palestine."  Israeli attempts to negotiate a peaceful settlement have been thwarted on several occasions and the risibly named "land for peace" policy -- the Jewish state's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005 -- has resulted only in increasing attacks from Arab-Palestinians. 

Yet, this nonsensical notion of rewarding terrorism with a state persists, when it would obviously simply enable more Islamic attacks against Israel.  Elevation to "nonmember observer state" status would allow Palestinian membership on  several U.N. panels which could lead to anti-Israel lawfare - creation or use of laws to harm Israel - at the International Criminal Court.  Conveniently using the Rome Statute, the Palestinians could prosecute the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli politicians for war crimes. 

Facing presidential elections in 2012 in a country where 82% of the public supports a Palestinian state and where Muslims outnumber Jews 10 to 1, Sarkozy appears to have used Arab-Palestinian statehood demands, not to create peace, but to appease French Muslims and appeal to the anti-Israel electorate.  Further, the French government could also have viewed a pro-Palestinian proposal at the U.N. as a way to avert increasing Muslim violence throughout the country.

These recent events give even more relevancy to the recent book, Europe, Globalization, and the Coming Universal Caliphate, by Middle East historian and scholar Bat Ye'or in which the author explains how Europe, with France as the driving force, has been complicit in the Islamization of the continent and its evolution from a Judeo-Christian civilization to one of subservience to Islam, a civilization of dhimmitude, or Eurabia.

Central to this shift has been the adoption of multiculturalism, which advances the idea that all cultures are equal and deserve equal treatment and which makes it politically incorrect to critique other cultures or uphold European traditions and values.  Multiculturalism has also resulted in rapprochement between Islam and Europe, a multilateral partnership between the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the U.N., and the Palestinianization of European policy to delegitimize Israel and cast it as the occupier/victimizer of Arab-Palestinians.  The European Union has even done the bidding of the OIC - the representative body of the Muslim world - by allowing unchecked Muslim immigration into Europe, promoting Islamic and Arabic culture on the continent, funding Palestinian terrorist acts sanitized as resistance operations, sponsoring challenges to Israel's security such as the Gaza flotillas, and spearheading boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

Bat Ye'or charts the development of the Eurabian movement to affect sweeping structural and cultural changes to Europe, beginning in the 1970s with the Euro-Arab Dialogue subterfuge, borne of the Arab oil embargo.  She cites this cultural and economic partnership as a vehicle to import Islamic culture into Europe and recounts how Muslim immigrants were welcomed and permitted to maintain segregated enclaves, which have progressed to "no-go zones" for native Europeans.  She observes that Muslims have not been pressured to integrate into European society and that Muslim immigrants have gradually supplanted European culture with their own, creating bastions of shariah in their communities.  Under the banner of multiculturalism and the shortsighted strategic alliance with Arab-Muslim countries, Bat Ye'or says, Europe has effectively facilitated its own Islamization.

To pave the way for Eurabia, the EU legitimized multiculturalism, which undermined state nationalism and cultural identities, Bat Ye'or writes.  Ironically, she adds, while multiculturalism postulated a cultural equivalency between the Western and Arab-Muslim world, Muslims always viewed themselves and Islam as superior.  Multiculturalism thus enabled Muslims to retain their separate and distinct way of life under a protective umbrella and carry on as if they were in their native countries.  Of course, Muslim states are openly hostile to multicultural values, ethnic and religious diversity and tolerance, as evidenced, Bat Ye'or says, by the rampant discrimination and violent attacks against non-Muslims and the execution of Islamic converts.

The revival of the barely dormant relationship between European supporters of the Third Reich ideology and their Arab-Muslim counterparts, represented by the OIC, formed the chrysalis of a united front against America and Israel.  The EU attempted to weaken the U.S. by building a counterweight at the U.N., namely the OIC.  The EU sought close ties with the OIC and wittingly facilitated OIC goals of Islamic cultural penetration of Europe.  Official European policy has encouraged citizenship for Muslims, a liberal asylum policy, the fight against Islamophobia, better relations with Arab countries and the demand for cultural sensitivity.  The EU goal was to use the clout afforded by their Arab-Muslim alliance to challenge the U.S. position of supremacy at the U.N. and in the Middle East. By recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization, supporting PLO leader Yasser Arafat and siding with the Arab-Palestinians against the Israelis, the EU saw a way to establish Europe as the major player in the region, insure uninterrupted oil and gas supplies and guarantee protection from Islamic terrorism on European soil.

The OIC, founded in Saudi Arabia in 1969 and consisting of 56 member countries, plus the Palestinian territory, represents the collective voice of the global Muslim community.  It is the second largest international organization in the world after the United Nations, wielding enough power to register the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam as a formal document at the U.N. even though its tenets conflict with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 by the U.N.  Further, while supporting Hamas and Iran's nuclear program, the OIC was able to pass a 2007 resolution at the U.N. to combat blasphemy against Islam.  Using the U.N., the OIC has declared that the crime of terrorism has been eclipsed by "crimes against humanity" - meaning crimes against Muslims.

The OIC's primary goals are to destroy Israel and establish a worldwide caliphate under shariah.  The OIC and its member states view the sacred Koranic duty of all Muslims as the Islamization of the planet and the destruction of Israel.  The very existence of the Jewish state supports the biblical roots of Judaism and Christianity and represents a grave insult to the existence of Islam which maintains that nothing existed before Mohammed.  The OIC endeavors to promote Islamic values, encourage worldwide solidarity among Muslims, support Palestinian statehood and outlaw all criticism of Islam and Muslims.

In Europe, Globalization, and the Coming Universal Caliphate, Bat Ye'or cites the irony that the Muslim world, through the OIC, blames the West for victimization of Arab-Palestinians, yet ignores the oppression of Middle East Christians and spews hatred against the Jews.  Europeans - prompted by fear of Muslims in their midst, the need for Arab oil and their own sordid history of anti-Semitism - accept blame for transgressions against Muslims by which they are, in turn, victimized.  They excuse jihadist terrorism by blaming U.S. imperialism, anti-Muslim foreign policy, America's support of the State of Israel and counterterrorist measures.  They thereby place themselves in the ludicrous position of sanctioning jihad as a valid response to alleged U.S. and Israeli oppression and labeling attempts to eradicate terrorism as anti-Muslim. 

In summary, in Europe, Globalization and the Coming Caliphate, Bat Ye'or observes that the EU experience, which began as a bulwark for security and defense, a means to fuel its economy and a quest for global empowerment, has become a foolhardy enterprise that has led to Eurabia, the subjugated status of dhimmitude. Under Eurabia, Europe is now experiencing the gradual eradication of human rights, the legitimization of jihadist terrorism and the demise of the democratic values of freedom, justice, tolerance and equality.  Bat Ye'or's observations of Europe's descent into Eurabia and dhimmitude are a caution for Americans facing the threat of Islamization.  A clear and present danger is building in our midst that could take the same shape and direction of Eurabia if Americans fail to be vigilant.