Letters to the Editor
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Reply to Kaleun
My friend, I can't speak for others whose remarks you addressed, but as for myself-- you might wish to be more circumspect when commenting upon where and whom your online interlocutors are. Your youth and inexperience are showing. Now it's my turn to make an assumption, but I'll wager-- high school or college student, right?
Sorry to rib you, and my apologies if I'm wrong, but you're mistaken about my alleged ignorance of conditions in Europe. I have lived in Europe for many years and was drawn to comment on this thread precisely because I was directly involved in efforts of EU countries to develop policies aimed at promoting better assimilation of Muslim immigrants.
Your remarks about Turks in Germany are valid, but they chiefly apply to a narrow segment of Muslims in Europe-- Turks whose antecedents came to Germany from a more secular Turkey during a very different time.
Unfortunately, the trend in Europe today seems to be pointing in a different direction. The riots in France in 2006 are the most visible manifestation of what law enforcement and social workers in many different EU cities deal with every day-- poverty, alienation, and disenchantment in growing ethnic "enclaves" from "Londonistan" to Paris to Copenhagen to Amsterdam. And that doesn't even take into account the bloody Balkans conflict with non-immigrant European Muslims that has finally culminated just two days ago with an independent Muslim Kosovo!
European governments deserve their share of blame, but in the end, these growing communities have little incentive to become 'western.' The cultural and religious distance is just too great for too many. Not for all-- but for too many.
That's the challenge Europe faces, my friend. And in my own opinion, Europeans not having babies for whatever reasons and continued mass migration from the Muslim world to the EU will only exacerbate existing problems.