Long division

http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/200...2220-8641r.htm

Long division
By Diana West
March 16, 2007


Without attracting much attention, representatives of the Belgian
political party Vlaams Belang recently visited Washington, D.C. Frank
Vanhecke and Filip Dewinter hoped to meet members of Congress; but
Congress was in recess. They hoped to engender some understanding of
their program to reverse the Islamization of Belgium; but the media were
strip-mining the tinsel life and tawdry times of Anna Nicole Smith.
Maybe they should have known that Tabloid America doesn't care about
the likely transformation of Europe into an Islamic continent, let alone
the fate of a French- and Dutch-speaking country of 10 million people.
And while Literary America does write books about the transformation --
"While Europe Slept" by Bruce Bawer, "The War for the West" by Tony
Blankley and "America Alone" by Mark Steyn come to mind Political America
has yet to acknowledge or even notice this colossal, epoch-defining shift
now taking place.
Why don't our leaders face it? This may be one of those questions our
children will ask some day. But if such natural curiosity isn't expressed
until the next generation, the civilizational struggle for Europe will
certainly have been lost. Better to question our politicians now. Better
to examine the issue today.
Europe, as we may readily observe, is very far along in an
accommodation with its still-increasing Muslim immigrant population that
is resulting not in the Europeanizing of Islam, but rather the Islamizing
of Europe. As Bernard Lewis declared in 2004, Europe will have an Islamic
majority by the end of the 21st century at the latest. As Vlaams Belang's
Mr. Dewinter recently put it, "We are becoming foreigners in our own
land." Such tragic pronouncements turn conversation with Vlaams Belang
into a kind of political free verse -- sadly evocative but rooted in a
desperate reality that should shake American complacency. That is,
"foreigners in our land" is poetry; Mohammed as the most popular boy's
name in Brussels for six years running is implacable fact. The idea that
"We are living on a dying continent but we are not dead yet," as Mr.
Dewinter has explained, is metaphorical. His citation from Libyan
dictator Moammar Gadhafi that "Allah is mobilizing Muslim Turkey to
add... 50 million more Muslims" to the European Union augurs world-class
revolution.
Is such a revolution desirable? After writing nearly incessantly
about Islamization since September 11, I won't surprise anyone by saying
no -- not if freedom of conscience, religious equality or women's rights
are your bag (not to mention the glorious representational artwork
Europe's museums are stuffed with). Besides, the strategic implications
for the United States are, in a word, bleak.
In multiculturally totalitarian Belgium, however, you make such
judgments at your own risk. Vlaams Belang, a conservative, free-market
party that stands for Flemish secession from the French-speaking part of
Belgium and opposes continued immigration, now stands trial in a Belgian
court for a comment -- a comment! -- Mr. Dewinter made in 2005 to a New
York publication, The Jewish Week. When asked why Belgian Jews should
vote for a party that espouses "xenophobia," Mr. Dewinter replied:
"Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If [it] absolutely must be a
'phobia,' let it be 'Islamophobia.' Yes, we're afraid of Islam. The
Islamization of Europe is a frightening thing."
If convicted of the "crime" of "Islamophobia" ("1984," anyone?), the
party would lose its state funding. In a country that effectively
prohibits private political fund-raising, Vlaams Belang -- the largest
party in Belgium -- would ultimately cease to exist. And so, too, would
free speech in the center of Europe.
Before I met Vlaams Belang's Frank Vanhecke and Filip Dewinter in
Washington, I believed Europe's rush to Islamize itself was a stampede,
its transformation all but inevitable. Now, I think these men have at
least earned Europe the benefit of the doubt. Studying their various
statements and interviews, I found no evidence to support the crude
slanders to which they are continually subjected in the media for being a
right-wing party opposed to the massive Islamic immigration now
transforming traditional European culture. Indeed, their statements on
Israel are more supportive than any European party I know of.
As Mr. Vanhecke put it in a recent speech, "They call us
'intolerant' because we oppose intolerance. They call us 'fascists'
because we oppose Islamofascism. They call us 'the children of holocaust
perpetrators,' because we oppose Islamists who are preparing a new
holocaust against the Jews."
America must start paying attention to Europe. And to Vlaams Belang.

--
FREE GILAD SHALIT, EHUD GOLDWASSER AND ELDAD REGEV!
http://www.banim.org

BOLUDOVSKY wrote:
> Vanhecke and Filip Dewinter hoped to meet members of Congress; but
> Congress was in recess.

Pray do tell, which members of congress did they wish to meet?

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:46:59 +0000, BOLUDOVSKY wrote:

> Vlaams Belang, a conservative, free-market
> party

:-)

> If convicted of the "crime" of "Islamophobia" ("1984," anyone?),

:-))

> their statements on
> Israel are more supportive than any European party I know

:-)))

> They call us 'the children of holocaust
> perpetrators,' because we oppose Islamists who are preparing a new
> holocaust against the Jews."

:-))))

> America must start paying attention to Europe. And to Vlaams Belang.

Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party
--
-_-_-_-
Maurice