Book review:
THE STRANGE DEATH OF EUROPE
Immigration, Identity, Islam
by Douglas Murray
Bloomsbury Continuum
2017, 352 pp., $26.00
Is upper crust Europe just tired of itself and its centuries of conflict? Are elites throwing in the towel on the continent with its complicated history? You have to ask these questions when borders have been thrown open wide to traditional enemies, some of whom come with the purpose of killing infidels for Islam.
Author Douglas Murray examines these disturbing questions and more in his recent book, which redefines the true civilizational devastation that unwise immigration can bring.
Much of the historic background of Europe’s immigration debacle will sound familiar to Americans, with its predictable procession from importing cheap-wage workers, which leads to growing barrios, inspiring interest groups with demands and complaints associated with culture, race, etc. A bad idea about diversity gains political power and then cannot be stopped. Mexifornia and Eurabia are both political demographic catastrophes caused by tribal immigration run amok.
The author gives a detailed account of how Britain and the rest of Europe thought importing a few foreign workers after World War II to help with rebuilding would be a good thing, and later the temps would naturally go home. But the foreigners didn’t return to their rustic homelands — they stayed and furthermore encouraged their families to come as well. Government officials in charge of such things perhaps did not appreciate the attractiveness of Europe’s more generous wages and social benefits to residents of the Third World.
Murray worries that the political class has created a dangerous situation by welcoming many unfriendly Muslims, particularly young men — who are the vanguard of the new population seen marching in — and he believes the public discussion is unrealistic about the future. His book provides a lot of evidence that the imagined transformation of the migrants into new Europeans isn’t happening, not by a long shot. Polling and behavior show a different, less friendly attitude than one might hope for in immigrants. Rather than Europeanizing the world, Europe’s future will be more like the Third World.
As ever, the numbers are likely to be determinative. Assimilation wasn’t occurring when the immigration was in the lower thousands, yet Europe elites welcomed far larger numbers, apparently with no worry. It’s not possible for Germany to remain stable while absorbing inflows of one to two percent of its population annually, the author warns. The numbers must come down. Plus, the unregulated practice of polygamy is a force multiplier to Islamic population growth among immigrants.
A surprising reaction among many of the chattering classes seems to be submission to the masses intent on moving in, asking passively: “What can be done? They’re coming! We’re overwhelmed!” The idea of borders clearly needs a reawakening to be understood as a basic component to national security, particularly after the assault the concept has gotten at the hands of European Union wackos over recent decades. Remember that in August 2016 European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker declared, “Borders are the worst invention ever made by politicians.”
Presumably, the man lives in a house with a door that locks, but he can’t imagine that principle on a Europe-wide basis in a dangerous world.
This book is a thorough history, plus it is also a study in psychology that dissects national neuroses about guilt from the past and other forms of overthink. One chapter centers on the “tyranny of guilt,” and the bad craziness is palpable. European feelings of guilt are extreme, to say the least, particularly when compared with other societies. Yes, Europeans in the past have committed crimes against humanity, but you don’t see Cambodia still overwrought with shame over Pol Pot’s murder of millions, and Pakistan does not self-flagellate over the many deaths it caused during the partition with India. As a result of this strange addiction to guilt and the negative narrative of history, Europe has lost faith in itself and its institutions. Islam’s unthinking confidence in Mohammed’s injunctions to conquer for the faith and political system don’t get a lot of pushback from Europeans. A social requirement for assimilation to the values of free speech, representative government, and individual rights (including women) is not present in the strength that’s needed. No-go zones are one symptom of hostile non-assimilation, where Islamic laws prevail and European police fear to enter. And Muslim violence is not restricted to those locales.
Belief in multiculturalism is a lurking presence in Europe and it colors the whole picture. The ideology has fallen into disrepute because of its recent failures, but the dogma — which verges on being an article of faith — appears not to have been totally expunged. Murray describes German Chancellor Merkel’s speech in 2010 where she said multiculturalism had been a failure, and other European leaders like Nikolas Sarkozy and David Cameron chimed in to agree with her in subsequent months. Yet a few years later Merkel invited all of war-torn Syria (population 22 million) to come to Germany, and grifters from Afghanistan to sub-Saharan Africa responded by trekking to Europe for a handout. The Frontex border agency estimated that 60 percent of “refugees” in 2015 were in fact economic migrants with no right to be in Europe at all. Even so, disturbing scenes occurred when groups of Germans — perhaps looking for an anti-guilt remedy — emotionally welcomed the newcomers: “The almost hysterical behaviour of the crowds radiated a sense of not just relief but ecstasy —that here were people migrating into Germany rather than migrating out of it. Instead of being a country people fled from because their lives were in danger, Germany had become a place where people escaping war and persecution were actually fleeing to” (pg. 161).
The big lie from elites to the population about the nature of Muslim immigration has been dangerously undermining to democratic governance. European leaders promised a wonderful diversity of immigrants that would enrich society, but instead the European people got demanding freeloaders, ISIS terrorists, and numerous assaults against women in places where such crimes rarely occurred in pre-invasion times. Additionally troubling is how the police covered up Muslim crimes, an alarming example being the more than 1,200 sexual assaults and robberies of women during the 2015 New Year’s celebration in Cologne. The media covered up that crime spree also, but the numbers were so extreme that stories bubbled out eventually. For some years previously, women had been told to walk in groups and stay home at night because the streets were no longer safe for at least half the population — this is the diversity that elites had imported and lied about. And even when the sunny promises turned out to be political deception, the invasion was (and is!) allowed to continue.
Despite the objections of the citizens, political elites are doubling down on their passion for Muslim diversity. Public opinion against continued immigration is growing, e.g., in 2010, 47 percent of Germans agreed with the statement “Islam does not belong in Germany,” and by 2016 the number had risen to 60 percent. But as Murray observed, “In fact, to date the most common response of Western Europe’s governing leaders has been that people who think in such a way have clearly not experienced enough diversity, in particular they haven’t experienced enough Islam, and that if they did they would think differently… If anyone wanted a textbook case of how politics goes wrong, here is one” (pg. 137).
Worse, those politics are pointed toward an Islamic Europe, and the continent’s corrupt leaders seem happy with that dismal prospect. Diversity is the religion for elites and social strife it causes is apparently invisible from the back of a limo. The assimilation project shows little chance of succeeding: Muslims who adapt even a little to European standards of freedom may be threatened or worse by the tribe. Another measure noted by the author: “… by 2015 more British Muslims were fighting for Isis than for the British armed forces” (pg. 313).
In short, the future looks dark, and no popular rage is reflected in society. The book is bleak and convincing.
Author Douglas Murray is tenacious at ferreting out the facts showing how Muslim immigration has been a one-way trip off a cliff of self-destruction. In addition, he is also a ferocious debater, with the skills and knowledge needed to smack down any Muslim diversity enthusiast. He has a YouTube channel that has a lot of good speeches and interviews, and a video search for Douglas Murray Debate gets all sorts of fascinating discussions where he does not suffer fools at all. Those of us who miss Christopher Hitchens have found another fearless voice.
Finally, the author has a warning for Americans. He appeared on Judge Jeannine’s Fox News show in late June to discuss the book. (You can watch the video on the Douglas Murray Archive on YouTube.) The judge asked why the topics of the book are relevant to Americans. He answered, “My feeling is that absolutely everything I describe in this book — it’s a result of traveling all across Europe and meeting the people who’ve just arrived and meeting the leaders of Europe — my feeling is that all of the things we’ve gone through are just examples of things that America is starting to go through as well. It’s just that we in Europe are further down the road, so to my mind this is a warning siren to you in America, really of what not to do.”
Of course he’s right. In fact, why have Muslim immigration at all? How does it benefit Americans? What could be more sensible than to keep a historic enemy of the West outside the gates? Not every Muslim is a jihadi, but a few are, so why take the chance? The United States is already rather diverse (with 13.4 percent foreign born as of 2015, according to Pew), and the election of Donald Trump shows the sparkle has declined from that ideology. Plus, the country doesn’t need to import workers because automation is expanding to perform more jobs once done by humans.
The larger issue is why Europe and America should be flophouses (or hijra zones for Islamic colonization) for the world, when immigration inhibits needed political reform everywhere else because it is easier to just leave than do the hard work of improvement. On a planet with more than seven billion residents, immigration should not be the only choice for persons dissatisfied with their lives. If the open borders were shut, it is hoped that more political reform at home might result.