Dissolution in Europe's future?

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Some four decades ago, Enoch Powell, a British Conservative parliamentarian, delivered a controversial speech about immigration from Commonwealth countries.

His words shocked his party leaders and led to his political downfall. Said Powell, soldier, academic and classicist in April 1968: "[T]he immigrant communities can organize to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided. As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood." (Powell was alluding to Virgil's line from the epic "Aeneid" about the Tiber foaming with blood. (For Latinists: "Et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno.")

The day after, Edwin Heath, leader of the Conservative Opposition, sacked Powell from his Shadow Cabinet post. Powell never again held another senior political post. But his words ring loud and clear as we look upon the sociopolitical phenomenon of our time, a phenomenon that has been called the Islamization of Europe's cities and the growth of Euro-Islamist populations. The prominent Swedish blogger who calls himself Fjordman has supplied some tormenting predictions about what Europe's Islamization entails:

Previously, Europeans or non-Europeans could travel between countries and visit new cities, each with its own, distinctive character and peculiarities. Soon they will travel from London to Paris, Amsterdam or Stockholm and find you have left one city dominated by burkas and Shariah (Muslim law) to yet another city dominated by burkas and Shariah.

A 2004 study under the auspices of Frances inspector-general of education described a school system where Muslim students regularly boycotted classes when Voltaire, Rousseau and Moliere were discussed. The reason? Muslim students accused them of being anti-Islamic. The same report cited the refusal of Muslim students to use the plus sign in mathematics because it looks like a crucifix and their boycott of class trips to churches, cathedrals and monasteries.

Population statistics support the Muslim claim that within a decade they will be the majority in all major cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In face of these developments, what follows?

The massive concentration of Muslims in major European cities, writes Fjordman, will have dramatic consequences, some of which are already visible. If this concentration continues in Europe this is what the future holds:

The state may not be able to guarantee the security of its urban citizens. If ordinary citizens feel the state is no longer able to guarantee their safety, perhaps native Europeans will create clans of their own to counter the Muslim clans.

The result will be a retribalization of Europe and, likely, the end of the nation-state.

Happy New Year, everybody.

Arnold Beichman is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a columnist for The Washington Times.