Re : The Following Article What is especially interesting in this development is that, I think for the first time, at least some elements of the Left are co-operating with the Right in opposition to Islam in Europe. Of course, to be expected, other elements of the Left are strongly opposed, all of which has meaning. In an unexpected way, the anti-Islam movement has --at least for now-- something of a Radical Centrist character. You are free to speculate about whether this Left / Right rapproachement will last. Personally, it seems unstable. After all, the contemporary Left is more than a little anti-Semitic and clearly is anti-Zionist in many cases. The Right is increasingly, as in the United States, pro-Israel even when disagreeing with particular Israeli policies. Moreover, there are a good number of other issues where Left and Right are at loggerheads. Especially economic policy and social matters such as the status of homosexuals. Nonetheless, it says something important that some Leftists are now in alliance with a major part of the European Right. The question seems to be this : Will part of the Left re-invent itself ? Probably the dominant Left will not do any such thing, it is viscerally neo-Communist or Marxist enough not to consider changing its stripes. But there is more to the story. There also are non-Marxist traditions on the Left, like Saint-Simonianism and Christian-inspired variants, so a minority of the Left could sheer off. It does not appear that the Right needs to remake its philosophy as much as does the Left, and in cases, only minimally. Yet, it could turn out that elements of the Right will seize on this "coming together" to modify a number of its "other" policies in a more Leftward direction. The Right might be more willing to make environmental issues their own, for instance, and maybe other things as well. There clearly is a long way to go before anything like a European version of Radical Centrism comes into existence; and this may never happen. Yet, here is an example of what could develop. Who would have thought that opposition to Islam could serve as a catalyst for Left / Right dialogue and movement away from strict partisanship ? And it is crucial to recognize the obvious --this opposition , in all likelihood, will only increase in the years ahead. The reason is simple : Immigration into Europe by Muslim multitudes show no signs of slowing down. France already is about 10 % Muslim, with Germany and Britain at about half that figure. While the Scandinavian countries remain predominantly Nordic, this is not true any longer in the major cities, with Malmo and Oslo and Helsinki each with large Muslim minorities. The same is true in the Low Countries, with Spain having a unique set of problems with the rise of Muslim populations there seeking to restore Islamic rule. And so forth in virtually all other nations on the continent. The only possibilities for diffusing the problem would seem to be mass return migration on the part of Muslims, which isn't going to happen, or massive deconversion from orthodox forms of Islam to something else, anything from Sufism to Atheism, and this also appears to be highly improbable, at least if this is to discuss significant numbers of people. Which is to say, there will continue to be motivation to oppose Islam on the part of more and more Europeans. It is worth pointing out that, while there certainly are differences, especially the commitment of Radical Centrists to democracy, original Fascism was a hybrid political philosophy of Left and Right. Things did not stay that way, of course, but throughout the 1920s the Italians retained their original Fascist character, to the extent that the movement had its champions in the United States including no less than Marcus Garvey, the "Negro" advocate of Civil Rights and of decolonialism. The anti-Semitism and racism of the Nazis, who joined with Italy in alliance, changed the character of Fascism by the later 1930s, needless to say, but let us not forget its beginnings. In other words, the same thing could happen again, this time without Hitler. Think of what that might mean. Billy Rojas ============================================================ A European anti-Islam movement grows Paris conference brings together speakers from across Europe to rail against the dangers of Islamization By _Mildrade Cherfils_ (http://www.globalpost.com/bio/mildrade-cherfils) - GlobalPost Published: January 2, 2011 PARIS, France — Gerard Brazon was uneasy. Something "unhealthy" and "dishonest" was afoot in France. It was Islam, decided the 58-year-old retired economic consultant turned blogger. And he was not alone in his concern. On Dec. 18, Brazon joined hundreds of like-minded people to hear a procession of speakers from countries such as Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and the United States detail the dangers of Islam in Europe, notably the religion’ s fundamental incompatibility with modern Western society, many of them said. “Increasingly, freedom of religion is overtaking individual freedom,” said Brazon at the close of the first _International Conference on the Islamization of Our Countries_ (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/18-decembre-2010-Assises-internationales-sur-lislamisation/133304180056016) , lamenting the erosion of secular France. The conference, held under the gaze of police and private security, was part revival preaching to the converted and part political drive to gather steam ahead of the French presidential campaign season. But for Brazon and others, it was also a “point of departure.” Organizers hailed the event as the birth of “a resistance movement against European Islamization.” “Maybe you will have been the starting point of something in France and in Europe,” said Oskar Freysinger, the headline speaker, who stoked the crowd’ s fervor after making a dramatic entrance surrounded by bodyguards wearing dark sunglasses, low-slung caps and black scarves covering their faces. As he entered, the crowd chanted his name. Freysinger, a member of the Swiss People’s Party, is best known for his involvement last year in a successful _campaign against the construction of minarets_ (http://www.globalpost.com/video/commerce/091210/location-geneva) in Switzerland, a debate that rages on across Europe. His speech was a mixture of gibes against soft-on-immigration liberals and calls for “ revolution." “What’s at stake is your mortal soul,” Freysinger told the crowd. Organizers estimated that more than 1,000 people paid the 10 euro ($13) entrance fee to attend. Freysinger later called the audience “a true microcosm of society,” as he marveled at its diversity: Marxists, feminists, Socialists and members of the UMP, the ruling French right party. What set the gathering apart was the fact that it brought people together from across borders around a single issue, said a lawyer for an anti-racism organization that had lobbied for the event’s cancellation. Bernard Schmid, of the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples (MRAP), said far-right political groups that are anti-immigrant or anti-Semitic or anti-Roma have existed previously, citing groups in countries including the _Netherlands_ (http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/benelux/100304/dutch-elections-geert-wilders) , _Germany_ (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/germany/101028/germany-immigration-multiculturalism) and _Sweden_ (http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/europe/101215/sweden-stockholm-terrorist-attack-extreme-right) , but if they joined forces it would be a new phenomenon. “There is an identification of one common enemy,” Schmid said. “What is new is the common work, not the ideological profile.” In early January, MRAP plans to file lawsuits accusing some of the event's speakers of inciting racial hatred. As proof, the organization will submit recordings of the proceedings, which were broadcast live on the internet. During the event, organizers told the crowd that some 50,000 people had watched online, eliciting wild applause. The final tally put that number above 240,000. One speaker, Elisabeth Wolff of Austria, drew a standing ovation after describing how she was charged with “incitement to hatred” following a private seminar during which she quoted religious texts, including the Koran. “I was not silenced, nor will they ever succeed in silencing me,” Wolff said to another stirring round of applause. She remarked that her case was not about the law but a political trial “intended to silence someone who speaks out against the barbaric nature of sharia law.” “When there are enough Muslims living in Europe — and it doesn’t have to be a majority of the population, just somewhere around 15 or 20 percent — we will be living under Islamic law, and not the laws that presently govern us,” she told the audience. Islam and mosques are ideas “that have nothing to do with Europe,” said Bruno Vendoire, a spokesman for Bloc Identitaire, the political group that organized the event and is vying to get a candidate on the 2012 presidential ballot. “We have our civilization to preserve and our civilization is Greco-Latin.” Vendoire said the gathering was intended to build on the "sausage and wine" parties the group held in June in response to Muslims praying in the streets in some Parisian neighborhoods because of overflowing mosques. Earlier this month, Marine Le Pen, the vice-president of the National Front party, compared those prayers to a World War II occupation, prompting MRAP to announce it would file suit. For Brazon, the issues go beyond prayer in the streets to more basic changes in France. He complains of neighborhoods where Africans are in the majority and he doesn't see anyone who looks like him. He says there are suburbs where young, white French men must assimilate to the speech and dress styles of young, Arab men, where women are not free to decide for themselves whether or not to wear a veil. “I like to feel like a foreigner when I’m in a foreign country,” said Brazon. “When you start to feel foreign in your own country, you start to ask questions.” -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
