Sunday, September 13, 2015

Is Europe Losing Control Over Its Destiny?



Gatestone Institute
Facebook   Twitter   RSS
Donate
In this mailing:

Is Europe Losing Control Over Its Destiny?

by Soeren Kern  •  September 13, 2015 at 5:00 am
  • The move by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels to force European countries to throw open their borders — and to require them to provide migrants with free clothing, food, housing and healthcare for an indefinite period of time — not only represents an audacious usurpation of national sovereignty, it is also certain to encourage millions of additional migrants from the Muslim world to begin making their way to Europe.
  • "We are not facing a refugee crisis, we are facing a migration crisis... Let us not forget that those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity. Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? If we lose sight of this, the idea of Europe could become a minority interest in its own continent." — Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary.
  • "[T]he continent is experiencing a mass movement of people not seen since the aftermath of the Second World War. Unlike the end of the war, however, none of the masses currently on the move is European... The control over one's own borders is one of the most important characteristics — and responsibilities — of a modern state. Countries lose control over their destinies and even cease to exist when they lose control over who gets in." — Arthur Chrenkoff, New York Observer.
  • Statistics show that of the 625,920 people who applied for asylum in the European Union in 2014, only 29.5% were from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
  • "If you do not like it, just go away." — Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, commenting that no one had invited migrants to his country, but once they arrive, they should respect the rules of his country or leave.
  • "The lesson for the United States is that reducing our global influence does not increase international peace and security. Quite the opposite. Obama's retreat from the Middle East, whether in the aftermath of Libya, his disinterest in the Islamic State's continuing rise, or his surrender to Iran's nuclear-weapons program, are all part of the larger pattern." — Ambassador John R. Bolton, Fox News Opinion.
  • "Since Slovakia is a Christian country, we cannot tolerate an influx of 300,000-400,000 Muslim immigrants who would like to start building mosques all over our land and trying to change the nature, culture and values ​​of the state.... If we do not start telling the truth about migration, we will never move from this spot." — Prime Minister Robert Fico, Slovakia.
Welcome to Germany! At left, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. At right, some of the hundreds of migrants who arrived in Munich on September 12, 2015.
The European Commission, the powerful administrative arm of the European Union, has unveiled a controversial plan that would compel EU member countries to accept 160,000 migrants and refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.
The move by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels to force European countries to throw open their borders — and to require them to provide migrants with free clothing, food, housing and healthcare for an indefinite period of time — not only represents an audacious usurpation of national sovereignty, it is also certain to encourage millions of additional migrants from the Muslim world to begin making their way to Europe.
The migration proposal, announced on September 9, would "share" 120,000 migrants currently holed up in Greece, Hungary and Italy with other countries in the European Union. This number is in addition to previous demands by the European Commission that 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean migrants be relocated from Greece and Italy.

Solving the European Migrant Problem

by Barry Shaw  •  September 13, 2015 at 4:00 am
  • The problem is that these people do not escape the Middle East. They bring the Middle East with them.
  • Let Europe accept the Christians. Let Muslim Arab countries accept the Muslim Arabs.
Migrants from the Middle East enter Hungary from Serbia, on August 26, by crawling under a temporary razor wire fence erected by the Hungarian government. (Image source: WSJ video screenshot)
The problem facing Europe is not only the vast number of migrants flooding the continent. It is that, from past experience, these people do not escape the Middle East. They bring the Middle East with them. The result is enormous strain on the social fabric of the host nations. It becomes increasingly difficult to assimilate the immigrants with the people already there, as governments try to accommodate the overwhelming weight of strangers who do not know their customs and do not speak their languages. Multiculturalism was a dream. It failed. In its place seems to be an emerging nightmare of unmanageable proportions.
The migrant problem is becoming a huge destabilizing headache for Europe. It should not be. The most humane solution -- respecting the migrant's ethnic and religious origins, and honoring their basic traditions of faith and language -- might be closer to home, at least for the migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.