The Eurabia Myth

Is Ralph Peters misreading the Europeans or is he on to something. He thinks that because the Europeans have been capable of inflicting mass carnage on an epic scale in the past - genocides and ethnic cleansings - dating back to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 to the Nazi Holocaust to the former Yugoslavia - that if the Islamists launch a few more attacks that the Europeans will engage in reprisals that would rival those earlier efforts.

And Europe's Muslims don't even have roots, by historical standards. For the Europeans, they're just the detritus of colonial history. When Europeans feel sufficiently provoked and threatened - a few serious terrorist attacks could do it - Europe's Muslims will be lucky just to be deported.

Sound impossible? Have the Europeans become too soft for that sort of thing? Has narcotic socialism destroyed their ability to hate? Is their atheism a prelude to total surrender to faith-intoxicated Muslim jihadis?

The answer to all of the above questions is a booming "No!" The Europeans have enjoyed a comfy ride for the last 60 years - but the very fact that they don't want it to stop increases their rage and sense of being besieged by Muslim minorities they've long refused to assimilate (and which no longer want to assimilate).

WE don't need to gloss over the many Muslim acts of barbarism down the centuries to recognize that the Europeans are just better at the extermination process. From the massacre of all Muslims and Jews (and quite a few Eastern Christians) when the Crusaders reached Jerusalem in 1099 to the massacre of all the Jews in Buda (not yet attached to Pest across the Danube) when the "liberating" Habsburg armies retook the citadel at the end of the 17th century, Europeans have just been better organized for genocide.

Oriana Fallaci would strenuously disagree with Peters. One of the reasons is that the Europeans and Islamists have common cause. Anti-Semitism.

UPDATE:
Others commenting on Peters' editorial include Don Surber who thinks it is a good idea to heed Peters' precautionary note. Gaius wonders whether Peters or Mark Steyn will end up being proven correct in the long run. The Anchoress and American Future also comment.