Seattle, Wash.

Having recently lived in France for five months, I'd say this article is dead on.

I personally encountered such overt racism, I was shocked--and I am far from Muslim. A friend in Paris had her purse snatched--by a white man. The police repeatedly asked her if the perpetrator was Moroccan, no matter how many times she insisted--in perfectly good French--he was not.

I find it interesting that in the last twenty-five years Europe welcomed an influx of immigrants from its previous colonies because they provided cheap labor. Did they really have absolutely no foresight as to where this might lead?

The US, however bunglingly, has had to deal with its colonized natives and slaves from day one--Europe did its dirty work outside its borders and is now staring angrily, dumbly at its Trojan horse.

Naren Murthy
02/21/2008 @ 9:34pm

Edinburgh,

This article is an excellent reminder that Europe is still not immune to its old disease--nationalism that actively denies anyone who is different: Gypsy, Jew, another European nation who is a minority in other nation-state and, recently, Muslims. Still, I feel that the author failed to mention the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since World War II: the genocide of Muslim Bosnians in Srebrenica (Bosnia) committed by the Serbs. Basically, Christian Orthodox Serbs killed about 8,000 Muslim boys and men and hid their remains in mass graves which are still being dug out. Also, Serbs destroyed hundreds of mosques (some five centuries old) in Bosnia and killed or expelled Catholic and Muslim (i.e., non-Serb) Bosnians from the territory they control. Note that Bosnian Muslims are white, Slavic-speaking Europeans who live in Europe for more than 500 years.

If these native Europeans can barely survive in today's Europe, what then can dark-skinned Asian or African Muslim in Europe hope for?

Unfortunately, it doesn't take much for people to go from removing/banning mosques to "removing" and "banning" Muslims. How should I know? Well, I survived the war in Bosnia.

Sinan Sinanovic
12/27/2007 @ 5:51pm

Cambridge, Mass.

Gary Younge's main point, as I understand it, is that the most potent and potentially dangerous form of religious bigotry in several countries in Europe is Christian prejudice against Muslims, and to some extent against Jews as well. It was perhaps unnecessary to invoke the specter of fascism, which is a more complex ideology involving much more than religious bigotry. He's right to remind us that anti-Semitism has a long and vicious history completely independent of recent Muslim immigrants.

Younge also does not make much of the different populations of Muslims in different European countries--Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the UK, North Africans in France, and Turks in Germany, for example. In their countries of origin these populations are very different. Turkey, for example, has generally been pro-Israeli and has not been a great public champion of the political rights of Palestinians vis à vis Israel.

But there's no doubt that the erection of large mosques bothers a lot of Europeans, who are accustomed to cathedrals as major architectural focuses of their cities. Those nominally Christian Europeans may hardly be religiously observant, but their changing cityscapes are potent reminders of a changing world. We Americans are more blasé in this regard and used to a polyglot population made up of recent and more remote immigrants. Indeed, most of us a keenly aware of our immigrant roots, even if they stretch back to the seventeenth century.

Colleen Clark
12/27/2007 @ 12:33am

Boston, Mass.

With due respect to Mr. Younge, the issue of the cause in the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe has been well studied in carefully conducted surveys. The phenomenon is clearly, beyond all doubt, associated with with anti-Semitism by Arabs and Muslims against Jews. As reported by the New York Times ("European Group Takes Wraps Off Study Linking Muslims and Anti-Semitism," December 6, 2003):

Responding to criticism from Jewish groups, European lawmakers and others, a European Union institute has made available the text of a previously withheld report that lays a major share of the blame for the much noted rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe with Arab and Muslim extremists.

The institute, the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, commissioned the study on anti-Semitism from the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at the Technical University in Berlin. However, the center decided against publishing the study, partly on the ground that it stigmatized entire Muslim or Arab communities in Europe for what it called "the acts of individuals or fringe elements within those groups."

This confirms exactly what I stated above.

But to show how confused--perhaps, prejudiced--Mr. Younge is, he writes: "None of this means anti-Semitism and jihadism don't exist among Muslim communities in Europe. But it does provide a context for both." And, what is the context? It is largely attacks and offensive assertions by non-Jews.

So, to Mr. Younge, it is reasonable context for Muslims to hate Jews because non-Jews hate and attack Muslims. That, in a nutshell, is why many Americans believe that left wing Europeans provide cover for Jew hating Muslims.

In any event, Mr. Younge's excuses for hatred are absurd. Did The Nation read the essay before publishing it? It does not appear so.

Now, addressing the main topic of the essay, it is true that there is a rise of fascistic movements in Europe. But, the cause of the rise--again something that a remote amount of common sense, not to mention clear polling data show--is the failure of European politicians to take seriously the concerns of Europeans regarding Muslim immigrants (e.g., about the unwillingness or inability of large numbers of Muslims to integrate and the unwillingness of Europeans to stand up to bullying campaigns by Muslim radicals). Which is to say, the failure to address reasonable concerns in a serious manner has led to the rise of extremist fascist parties which promise to address such concerns and, as with extremists of all stripes, then some.

Expect more fascism in Europe when European opinion makers, such as Mr. Younge, whitewash away facts into fantasy. And, I am not making excuses for those who do hate Muslims. I am, instead, saying that the failure to address issues only makes problems worse and those who whitewash problems away, like Mr. Younge, are helping the extreme right in Europe climb toward power.

Nial Friedman
12/22/2007 @ 01:15am

Upper Darby, Pa.

This does not appear to be well-grounded in the reality department. The author seems to equate anti-immigrant with his definition of fascist. There does not appear to be any significant move towards real fascism in Europe today.

Those Swiss and Norse parties are a long, loooonnnngg way from anything fascist, being more like the American Republicans. If you can somehow pretend that they are fasicst, I have a bridge to sell you.

John D. Froelich
12/21/2007 @ 11:51pm