Statistics on Muslims in Europe Raise Questions.

The “Islam in Europe” blog site has provided some statistics on the growing Muslim population in European cities. Of course these statistics do not tell us how many of these Muslims are integrated into Western culture; how many are new, illegal, and very radical; or how one gathers such statistics when European census data do not include religion as a category. (Political correctness forbids asking.) However, figures have been gathered—probably from mosques and Islamist organizations—which have every reason to fudge on the high side, as they do in the United States. With that caveat, these are the numbers we have:

Marseilles - 25 percent (200,000 of 800,000) Malmö - ~25 percent (67,000 of 270,000 Amsterdam - 24 percent (180,000 of 750,000) Stockholm - 20 percent (>155,000 of 771,038) Brussels - ~20 percent (some say 33 percent) Moscow - 16 percent-20 percent (2 million of 10-12 million) London - 17 percent (1.3 million of 7.5 million) Luton - 14.6 percent (26,963) Birmingham 14.3 percent (139,771) The Hague - 14.2 percent (67,896 of 475,580) Utrecht - 13.2 percent (38,300 of 289,000) Rotterdam - 13 percent (80,000 of 600,000) Copenhagen - 12.6 percent (63,000 of 500,000) Leicester - 11 percent (>30,000 of 280,000) Aarhus - ~10 percent Zaan district (Netherlands) - 8.8 percent Paris - 7.38 percent (155,000 of 2.1 million) Antwerp- 6.7 percent (>30,000 of >450,000) Hamburg - 6.4 percent (>110,000 of 1.73 million) Berlin - 5.9 percent (~200,000 of 3.40 million) Daniel Pipes one of our country’s best scholars on modern Islam, notes that the largest cities—mostly capitals—have disproportional representation of Muslims. With the exception of Marseilles, most are northerly capitals. Although the numbers do not provide rates of growth, Sweden’s Stockholm and Malmö may soon be the first western European cities with a Muslim majority—followed by Moscow, down the road. What this will mean for European culture depends upon three unknowns: whether radical Islamism will prevail, integration will prevail, or a nationalistic turn in Europe will at some point deport the immigrants.

The United States does not seem to have a concentration of Muslims in any one place, other than in Dearborn, Michigan. However, James Jay Carafano of the Heritage Foundation has assembled a partial list of terrorist conspiracies that have been aborted since 9/11 by law enforcement and/or alert citizens.

Richard Reid, December 2001 Jose Padilla, May 2002 Lackawanna Six, September 2002 Lyman Faris, May 2003 Virginia’s "Paintball Jihad" network, June 2003 Dhiren Barot, August 2004 James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj, August 2004 Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, August 2004 Umer Hayat and Hamid Hayat, June 2005 Levar Haley Washington, Gregory Vernon Patterson, Hammad Riaz Samana, and Kevin James, August 2005 Michael C. Reynolds, December 2005 Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, Zand Wassim Mazloum, February 2006 Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, April 2006 Sears Tower plot, June 2006 Assem Hammoud, July 2006 Heathrow liquid explosives plot, August 2006 Fort Dix plot, May 2007 JFK plot, June 2007

Daniel Pipes, who has also been keeping track, adds Ryan Anderson, the Portland Seven, Tarik Shah and Mahmud Faruq Brent, and others in his own November 13, 2007 list.

So far, it appears that most of the people on these lists were not part of any specific Al Qaeda plot, but were independent operators. Most appeared to be incompetent, fortunately. Perhaps American Muslims find it so much easier to integrate into American society than do those in Europe that even our Saudi-financed Islamist mosques have not succeeded in radicalizing young men in any numbers.

For Europeans, it is race to see which will happen sooner: integration or alienation of both Muslims and their host populations. The big unknown is what would happen if Al Qaeda or its subsidiaries were to succeed in pulling off another murderous attack: dirty nukes, suicide bombers, or worst of all, biological warfare. Political correctness should be packed away and instead campaign to promote integration.

659 words

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is a lecturer, historian, and author. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or www.globalthink.net.