(Cross-posted at Vocal International.)
There are some in the West, such as American FOX News commentator, Bill O'Reilly, who claim that Europe is under "invasion." The implication of such language is that ultimately, underneath it all, there is something nefarious about Syrians fleeing war and Arabs, in general, fleeing economic deprivation in order to migrate into Europe.Many people are wondering how it is that in the photos and videos of the migrants there seem to be so few old people or women? How is it that most of the individuals in the photos published the European and Western press show young men seemingly in their twenties and thirties? Don't they have families? The question underscores the actual nature of this immigration. To what extent are these refugees of war and to what extent are they economic immigrants looking for greater opportunities, or at least greater governmental economic benefits, in more generous countries? Records show that a minority of migrants are coming from Syria. The rest are coming from throughout the Arab-Muslim world for reasons other than the deprivations and miseries of war.
Much of the press has noted distinctions between how Western Europe handles the immigration crisis versus how Eastern Europe does so. Western Europe, particularly Germany and Sweden, seemed willing to take in an almost limitless number of Arab immigrants, but are now hedging their bets. This is emphatically not the case in Eastern Europe where countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic, among others, are talking about only accepting Christian refugees.
Meanwhile, as has often been noted, the wealthy Persian Gulf States, who import cheap labor from Far East Asia, have no interest whatsoever in taking in their besieged brothers and sisters from Syria. Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are not concerned with humanitarian efforts to assist their fellows in a time of great tragedy and are taking in zero refugees.
Strangely, while people from throughout the Arab world are fighting their way into Europe, the one country that is seeing virtually no Arab emigration as part of this general mass migration is Israel. Arabs and Muslims are racing out of that part of the world, except in Israel. Israel's Arab population is staying put, which is rather odd considering the alleged ongoing persecution of Israel's Arabs. One would think, given news reports about Israel's never-ending harassment and persecution of its Arab population that they would have joined the general exodus, but they have not.
Yet another question to ask, as Burak Bekdil does at the Gatestone Institute, is Why Do Muslims Flock to The "Evil West"? He writes:
Sadly, no one questions why "West-hating" Muslims go West; why their fellow Muslim Arab nations do not raise even a helping finger, let alone a hand; or why non-Muslims should pay the price for exclusively intra-Muslim wars and the wave of migrants they create.Those are, in fact, excellent questions, but what is this price that Europeans will pay for intra-Muslim wars and the migration crisis that those wars, and general Arab poverty, have created?
It is hard to know just how many immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa will enter Europe within the next few years, but all indications are that we are seeing the largest movement of people on the planet since the end of World War II. This will likely have a significant influence in the years and decades ahead on European culture and politics. A major part of the reason for this is the disinclination of Arabs and Muslims to assimilate into their host countries.
Women's Rights
Muslims throughout the Middle East and North Africa, it is safe to say, are considerably more conservative and traditional concerning women's rights than are native Europeans. Given that the European Left has traded universal human rights for multiculturalism, what we will likely see is the continuing decline of European feminism. With the rise of Sharia courts in Britain, women's rights will further erode as a greatly enlarged Muslim immigrant population avails themselves of such courts and promotes their application elsewhere throughout Europe. It is likely that in some parts of Europe - if such is not already the case - Muslim women will be no more free from persecution than they are in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.
Gay Rights
Europe is about to become significantly less GBLT friendly than it has been in recent decades. If Arab cultures are any indication, the Arab-Muslim immigration into Europe is not going to represent a Gay friendly population. Quite the contrary. What you will see in the coming years is an increase in anti-Gay hate speech and violence and the consequent erosion of Gay and Lesbian rights throughout the continent as Arab and North African immigrants begin to flex their political muscle.
Jewish Rights
As Arab-Muslims stream into Europe, the tiny Jewish population is trickling out. Anti-Semitism is on the rise throughout the continent and a large part of the reason for this is the introduction of a growing anti-Jewish demographic throughout the region. Polls show that the Middle East, outside of Israel, harbor anti-Semitic sentiments in the 80th percentile. That is to say, the great majority of Arab and Muslim migrants from the Middle East are likely to despise Jews and they are quite likely to show it in no uncertain terms on European soil. Another consequence of the mass migration into Europe will be the further decline of Europe's Jewish population which will slowly, over time, migrate to places like Israel, North America, and Australia.
Values
As the numbers of migrants increase throughout Europe, particularly Germany and Sweden, we will see a decreased European commitment to social justice and universal human rights for the simple reason that the migrants are not European and do not share European values grounded in Enlightenment notions of political liberalism and generally have no inclination to integrate.
We in the West like to think that everyone ponders more or less as do we. This is arrogance. The fact of the matter is that different cultures are, in fact, different and therefore hold to different cultural, religious and political tendencies. Whatever the cultural, religious, and political tendencies of these many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of immigrants washing into Europe, the continent will have no choice but to absorb and integrate those tendencies.
So, is Bill O'Reilly in the United States correct to call the mass immigration of Arabs into Europe an "invasion."
I do not think so. The word is loaded. It implies an intent to do harm, whereas the vast majority of immigrants are simply seeking better circumstances for themselves. Nonetheless, still another consequence will be an increase in Jihadi violence throughout Europe.
It is hard to imagine that the Islamic State, and other organizations in the Middle East devoted to political Islam, are not embedding operatives into the Arab population streaming into Europe. What this means, of course, is that in short order we will start hearing of additional bombings throughout Europe.
The Western European inclination to take in these immigrants and refugees is grounded in humanitarianism and is, therefore, admirable.
But as we say in the United States, no good deed goes unpunished.
