Geert Wilder

In the last five years there has been considerable debate regarding "What to do about radical Islam". Here in the United States, Muslims are a small portion of our society. In Europe this is different. Just as America has experienced an influx of immigrants from Latin America, Europe has had a similar migration of Muslims. Like in the US, these unskilled workers came to fill jobs that nobody wanted. It is common to see Muslims working in foodservice and lodging in all European cities just as it is common to see Hispanics in the same jobs in America.

The good news for America is, our illegals are Christians. Europe has been flooded with Muslims who have taken nearly all the unskilled jobs and become a critical part of European society. Worse, this group is discriminated against by many Europeans as not being white or European. The response has been increased violence between traditional Europeans and the new immigrants.

It is therefore of no real surprise that Europe is very sensitive to the "War on Terror". In part this is why they did not embrace the Iraq invasion. They do not want to alarm or incite their own Muslim communities who may well raise up against their French, German or Dutch neighbors. In Holland, [The Netherlands] this situation has reached a boiling point. You may remember the Cartoons drawn to show the Prophet Mohammad and the riots that followed. Recently, a new crisis has developed regarding a film by Geert Wilder, a Dutch member of Parliament.

Try to keep in mind that Europe has been VERY ethnocentric in the last 500 years. Here is a short aside: The English and Irish have been fighting each other for 400 years and the are both lily white. The Germans and French fought two World Wars in the last 100 years over something that nobody can recall. If you live in an area, say in Holland, it is very different from America. Everyone around you in Dutch and they all speak the same language. Or, they did for the last 1000 years until the new Muslims showed up and refused to speak Dutch. Resentment and prejudice is everywhere but it is really strong in Europe. Again, Germany killed 6 million Jews because they were different.

By comparison, America is much better at handling multicultural and multi ethnic societies. Any major city in America is 12% Black and 20% Hispanic. Of the so called "white" people there are Irish, German, French and Italians. With few Norwegians and Russians thrown in. On the West Coast, or here in my neighborhood, Asian make up the majority of the population and they include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai. Only Paris is similar in diversity among European cities.

So Europe has a large Muslim population who are treated badly by native Europeans. This would just be a bad case of discrimination except for......Osama Bin Laden. In the last five years European Muslims have become militant. Remember the 911 Hijackers came from Hamburg, Germany. Europe is under constant fear that some wrong move by their government will spark a local terror attack. London and Madrid have both had such attacks.

In Holland, they have had enough. The new film "Fitna" is a 15 minute indictment of the Quran. The premise is that Islam is a violent religion and anti Western. Passages from the Quran are used to point to examples of intolerance and violence. The film can be seen on the Internet by Goggling Fitna. Geert Wilder is being called crazy and a provocateur by his follow Dutch. His life is in danger and the lines have been drawn between the native Dutch and the new Muslims in Holland.

I agree that it is time for all rational people to take a position on radical Islam. This includes all Muslims. You are either supportive of the violence, or you stand against it. Geert Wilder is brave to point out the situation and demand a resolution. Western civilization is depending on the answer.