I’ve read a number of articles lately on the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe—none finer or more instructive than this one from Mark Steyn: “Israel Today, the West Tomorrow”
He starts off with a chilling account of some Jewish tourists in London:
“On Holocaust Memorial Day 2008, a group of just under 100 people—Londoners and a few visitors —took a guided tour of the old Jewish East End. They visited, among other sites of interest, the birthplace of my old chum Lionel Bart, the author of Oliver! … Those few dozen London Jews considered themselves at ’ome. But they weren’t. Not any more. The tour was abruptly terminated when the group was pelted with stones, thrown by “youths”—or to be slightly less evasive, in the current euphemism of Fleet Street, “Asian” (Muslim) youths. “If you go any further, you’ll die,” they shouted, in between the flying rubble.”
Mark proceeds to present the results of several related polls.:
-“62 percent of Germans “are sick of all the harping on about German crimes against the Jews”
-“59 percent of Europeans regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.”
-“In Germany, it was 65 percent; Austria, 69 percent; the Netherlands, 74 percent. For purposes of comparison, in a recent poll of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—i.e., the “moderate” Arab world—79 percent of respondents regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.”
According to Steyn, the demographics will pose a major problem in the future with the Muslim communities all over Europe growing at a faster rate than the indigenous Europeans. As it is, surprisingly many major cities in Europe already have a Muslim majority or nearly so—this affects current policies towards Israel and attitudes towards Jews—something that will only get worse in the future:
“Beyond the fashionable “anti-Zionism” of the Euro Left is a starker reality: The demographic energy … in almost every Western European country is “Asian.” Which is to say, Muslim. A recent government statistical survey reported that the United Kingdom’s Muslim population is increasing ten times faster than the general population. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and many other Continental cities from Scandinavia to the Côte d’Azur will reach majority Muslim status in the next few years.
Brussels has a Socialist mayor, which isn’t that surprising, but he presides over a caucus a majority of whose members are Muslim, which might yet surprise those who think we’re dealing with some slow, gradual, way-off-in-the-future process here. But so goes Christendom at the dawn of the third millennium: the ruling party of the capital city of the European Union is mostly Muslim.”
Mark Steyn predicts that most of the Jews in Europe will probably end up relocating to Israel, the US, or maybe Canada:
“There are about 150,000 Jews in London today—it’s the thirteenth biggest Jewish city in the world. But there are approximately one million Muslims. The highest number of Jews is found in the 50-54 age group; the highest number of Muslims are found in the four-years-and-under category. By 2025, there will be Jews in Israel, and Jews in America, but not in many other places.
At the end of his article Steyn looks to the future and sees Europeans themselves replacing the Jews and becoming the objects of persecution in their own homelands. The article is a great overview of some of the major problems ahead in the near future.