Although it seems clear that the street in Europe is against Israel, after the October 7th massacre, Europe fears more than ever that what happened in Israel, could happen to them as well. The rape, the amputation of the organs and the beheading, made the Europeans feel more than ever that they live in two different civilizations that cannot be bridged. The behavior of those who invaded Israel on Simchat Torah is beyond terrorism, they saw it as barbaric and inhuman conduct.
The Europeans did not expect that in the 21st century they would have to face again the question of whether it is permissible to rape women and behead them in the name of ‘struggle for independence’. The realization that many in extreme Islam and the extreme left on the continent were not shocked by the massacre and did not condemn it, caused many to fear and realize that there is a cultural gap that cannot be bridged. And hence the question arose: won’t those people, who are not shocked by the rape and indiscriminate murder of Israeli women, also be shocked by the rape and murder of European citizens?
Muslims in Europe:
Tens of millions of Muslims live in Western Europe today (there are no exact figures due to the difficulty of enumerating immigrant populations and out of political interest), most of whom came to Europe from massive migration from the Middle East and North Africa. The high birth rate in relation to the local population significantly increases their number and percentages in Europe from year to year.
For example, the Muslim population in Great Britain grew at a rate 10 times higher than any other population sector in the United Kingdom.
Various forecasts predict that by 2050 close to 20% of Europe’s population will be made up of Muslims.
Already today, in large European cities, the number of Muslims living in them approaches or aspires to 20%.
Europe’s problem is that the Muslim immigrant population did not integrate into European culture as the leaders who accepted them in their countries expected and hoped.
Although the immigrants received housing, education and infrastructure from the European welfare states, the majority were not able to move forward and integrate into European society, but exactly the opposite – most of them currently rely on the welfare services in those countries and do not even excel in local language skills, the unemployment rate among Muslim immigrants in Europe is about 30% .
In Europe, they were convinced that the next generation of immigrants would already integrate well and believed in integration, they believed that the parents who fled their failing countries, would want their children to integrate and be European in everything, but not so – issues such as freedom of expression, freedom of religion, honor killings, Sharia laws, dress codes, Women’s rights and more only deepened the gap and the desire of Muslims not to assimilate into the secular/Christian population.
Issues such as modesty, the role and place of women in society, education, employment, freedom of movement, forced marriage, the dress code and more are at the heart of the old dispute between Muslims and secular countries.
In Europe, Muslim men and young men of low socioeconomic status still commit murder for dishonoring the family against women who take part in the life of the secular community, or take part in political movements and public life.
The Muslim religious leaders call in Rish Gali to curb freedom of expression – which is seen in the West as a basic right. European intellectuals, public and cultural figures who express criticism towards Islam absorb news for terrible episodes in their lives.
The Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe also played a part in shaping European public opinion which is leaning to the right.
One of the most controversial issues in Britain is the question of the application of Sharia law in the country. Sharia is an indefinite set of Islamic religious laws based on the Koran. In Great Britain there is an unspecified number of “Sharia Councils” which are mistakenly also called “Sharia Courts”.
They are not required to register and there is no supervision of their actions, which increases the suspicions against them. The political right in Europe and Britain see the spread of “Sharia Councils” as a danger to secular culture. According to them, the Sharia councils create a legal system parallel to British law.
Neighborhoods in the suburbs of European cities, where there is a high concentration of members of Muslim minorities have become centers of crime and violence, partly on criminal grounds and partly on ideological grounds (Islamism and separatism). In some cities, such as in Malmö, the situation has reached that official services of the state or the municipality such as police, ambulances and post do not enter these neighborhoods for fear of being violently attacked by the Muslim immigrants. In these areas it is not considered safe to walk around alone after dark.
It cannot be ignored that the meeting between the world of Islamic concepts, which is rooted in the book of the Koran, which stands as a complete antithesis to the secular European culture (and especially to its sexual aspects), raises a severe enmity between the two different cultures.
The words of an imam in Belgium resonated and were recorded somewhere in the brain cellars of the Europeans:
“In a short while we will rise to power in this country. Those who criticize us today will still regret it. They will have to serve us. Get ready, because the hour is near.”
The imam’s words were spoken against the background of the Muslim view, according to which the world is divided into parts: Dar al-Islam (Dar al-Islam) – the house of Islam, the area that has already been subjected to Muslim rule, where the laws of Islam are observed, such as Saudi Arabia and part of the Middle East, and Dar al-Harb (Dar al-Harb The war) – the place of war, the area where war is fought. Dar al-Aman (دار الامن) – The establishment of a non-Islamic state in the area of Dar al-Islam is a difficult problem in the Muslim worldview, and some Muslims believe that it is impossible to put up with such a situation, except on a temporary and limited basis.
In light of all this and in light of the enormous growth of Muslims in Europe, some are already warning that this is a process known in advance, the end of which will be the disintegration of Europe in its current form.
Right-wing people in Europe turn to their public and say :
“The situation was created as a result of European laxity, which is interpreted by the immigrants as weakness, as if they had received Europe in their hands for free. They do not integrate into society voluntarily, not under coercion, in entire neighborhoods they perpetuate the culture they brought with them, they are not aware of the language and economy and remain in their enclaves – they did not move from countries Arabia to Europe, but they want to move the Arab countries to Europe.”
Studies published by right-wing people in Europe warn of the trend towards which the continent is moving – the European birthrate is in a continuous slowdown and women are avoiding giving birth to children, while Muslim immigrants are doubling their rate. Thus in France more Muslims than non-Muslims are born every year.
The bigger problem is that those Muslim immigrants do not want to assimilate into society, as European leaders hoped and believed they would.
Dr. Zvika Liebman says that the dream of European leaders, led by Angela Merkel and David Cameron, is to see the second and third generation of immigrants as full-fledged citizens, shattering in the face of the intentional separation of the Muslim immigrant population. “There are thousands of mosques in every host country, especially in the core countries – Germany, France and Great Britain. The parents, even those who have assimilated into European society, make sure to send their children to traditional education. The mosques and community centers take care of isolation. The attachment to the countries of origin and religion is always present, more Muslim-global And less to their country of birth. They see the trends in their countries of origin – in Turkey, in Egypt, where they also talk about Islam as something global.”
How did it happen that the leaders in Europe did not recognize the phenomenon?
After the Second World War, Europe behaves very cautiously with regard to human rights and human dignity and freedom, and at the same time Europe needs manpower, mainly manual workers, and the immigrants provide an immediate response to this.
European leaders also decided to grant asylum to Muslim immigrants, especially after outbreaks of struggles and wars
Since then, Western Europe has gone sober, taking steps to limit immigration, but at a slow pace. It seems that the consequences of the war in Gaza were the straw that broke the European camel’s back. Now, the redrawing of what is allowed and what is not is happening rapidly, and it is even difficult to keep track of the multitude of initiatives.
“Europe cuts to the right”
Europe has been changing its face in recent years, the European right is getting stronger, and this is not necessarily because everyone is racist – but because many on the continent believe that the integration process of immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants, has failed. Quite a few claim that the Muslim minority is a danger to European society, unable to acclimatize and puts individual security at risk, mainly because of terrorist attacks, which are identified with Muslims.
The polls, conducted in all 27 EU member states, predict that far-right parties may win first place in nine countries, including Austria, France and Poland. Right-wing parties may win many votes in nine other countries, including Germany, Spain and Sweden, in a way that may lead to the formation of a right-wing majority coalition for the first time, which will consist of conservatives, Christian Democrats and members of parliament from far-right parties.
Far-right parties in Europe are calling for limiting the number of refugees entering the continent, and even deporting the illegal immigrants. One of the recent significant actions of the European Union is the granting of an amount of nearly 8 billion euros to support Egypt, with the aim that this will help deal with the waves of immigration from North Africa, and especially from Libya. Last week, the European Parliament approved new legislation in the field of immigration, and even before that in 2020, the Union promoted a policy to fight terrorism, which is based, among other things, on increasing security in the public sphere and in important infrastructures.
The big change in Sweden:
Sweden, for example, which until a few years ago was the country that received the most refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East – by a large margin – went from strength to strength until in the last elections it brought the “Democratic Swedes” into the government, an extreme party led by Jimmy Axon that became the second largest in the country. Since October 7, the government has announced the cancellation of generous welfare payments to immigrants from outside the European Union. Back then, Exxon called to prevent the construction of new mosques in Sweden, and even to destroy existing ones. “They are the source of the anti-Semitism we see in the streets,” he said.
An article by Ohad Hamu and Elad Shamhioff about Malmo, which was recently broadcast on Channel 12 in Israel, presented harsh quotes from among the Palestinian elements in the city. In the market in Möllevången, most of the sellers and buyers are Muslim Arabs, some are Palestinian, and the texts heard there are difficult to digest. “Monkeys and pigs have more respect than them, they are much better than Jews,” said one of the visitors to the market. “If I could, there wouldn’t be a single Jew left on the face of the earth. There wouldn’t be a single Israeli left.”
Another person said during the meeting with Israeli journalists that “everything Israeli we want to slaughter with a knife. The children Israel killed in Gaza is a massacre in world terms. Hamas slaughtered? You are a people of lies. When Allah created you he did it on a lie. You must not have existence in the world”.
Germany:
The Palestinian community in Berlin is probably the largest in Europe, identified mainly with a population of refugees from the Gaza Strip and hence since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in 2023, for example the Neuklen district in the southwest of Berlin, a neighborhood that is now considered a Palestinian stronghold, has become a real war zone.
Acts of violence against Jews or Israelis and also against the local police and security forces are reported in this neighborhood.
Until recently, the neighborhood of Neuklan was considered a neighborhood with a young and hipster character, and it attracted many students, including Israelis, but since the beginning of the war the atmosphere there is completely different.
In December 2023, several Hamas operatives were arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning attacks, and other terror suspects – many of them identified with Palestinian terrorist organizations or ISIS – were arrested in Italy, Bosnia, Austria and other countries. The Federal Police in Germany reported about 4,000 cases of suspected terrorism or hate crimes that occurred between October and December 2023, and for them this is a real step up. “October 7 definitely gave a boost to the terrorist activists in Germany”,
In Germany, it is possible to identify a real strengthening of the extreme right party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) which adopts anti-Islamic lines and some of its members have even been accused of planning a plot to expel Muslims from the country.
The government has announced its intention to deport large numbers of asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected. Proposals to require loyalty to German values in order to obtain citizenship were published in the media, demands to recognize Israel’s right to exist as well, and cuts in welfare payments to asylum seekers whose applications were rejected along the way. This is a left-wing government, but both the “Greens” and the social democrats who are partners with it understand that if they do not adopt tough positions against immigration – they will experience what happened in the Netherlands –
Netherlands:
In November, Gert Wilders, the far-right candidate in the Netherlands, won the parliamentary elections. The controversial politician, who in polls in September, two months before the elections, won only 9% – finally achieved 24% and became the leader of the largest party in the country. Although Wilders did not form the government, he is an example of the rise of many right-wing leaders on the continent against the background of the fear of the strengthening of Islam.
France:
In France, various polls predict that the right-wing woman Marine Le Pen will run for president in 2027.
In France, data showing the summary of anti-Semitic events for 2023 has not yet been published, but it can already be said that there is an extreme upward trend in the cases of anti-Semitism in the country. About 1,762 anti-Semitic incidents were reported “only” until November 2023, and are more than four times more than all the incidents of violence reported in the entire year of 2022. According to the Ministry of Diaspora, a significant source of some of the anti-Semitism in the country is the second and third generation immigrants from Islamic countries, combined with anti-Semitism resulting from the social polarization between extreme right and left.
The far-right ‘Union Nationale’ party in France (RN) led by Marine Le Pen has grown significantly stronger in recent years. Le Pen, whose father was an avowed anti-Semitic, has been trying in recent years to shake off this image. Since October 7, Le Pen has been seen marching in pro-Israel demonstrations calling for support for Israel in its war against Hamas. However, it must be remembered that Le Pen’s main ambition is to become the next president of France.
Italy:
In October 2022, Giorgia Maloney became the Prime Minister of Italy, and as we know she has neo-fascist roots, precisely because she put the issue of immigration at the center.
Austria:
According to some polls, the person expected to become the next chancellor of Austria is the extreme right-winger from the “Freedom Party of Austria” (FPÖ).
In Hungary:
The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán has been involved in various conflicts with European Union officials regarding the issue of immigration. In 2015, Orbán’s government erected a wire fence along Hungary’s border with Serbia to reduce the wave of immigrants and refugees seeking to enter the country, on their way from the Middle East and Africa to Western European countries. Orban described the immigration problem as a “German problem” and joined other leaders from Eastern Europe in calling for mandatory quotas for the absorption of immigrants among all EU countries.
In the run-up to the 2018 elections, Orban used Christian rhetoric in an attempt to position himself as the defender of Christianity against the wave of Muslim immigration. In April 2018, his party won the most votes after the laws enacted for this purpose favored his party.
