Eurabia is a political neologism that refers to the perceived Arabization and Islamization of Europe.

In its extreme form, the theory is that because of continued mosque constructions, immigration, high birth rates, and European leaders' perceived capitulation to Islamic influences, the Muslim population in Europe will become a majority within a few generations. The situation described by the Eurabia theory is generally considered unlikely. Some have called it a conspiracy theory.

Origin of the term

''Eurabia'' was originally the title of a newsletter published by the ''Comité européen de coordination des associations d'amitié avec le monde Arabe''. According to Bat Ye'or, it was published collaboratively with ''France-Pays Arabes'' (journal of the ''Association de solidarité franco-arabe'' or ASFA), ''Middle East International'' (London), and the ''Groupe d'Etudes sur le Moyen-Orient'' (Geneva). During the 1973 oil crisis, the European Economic Community (predecessor of the European Union), had entered into the Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) with the Arab League. Bat Ye'or later used the journal title ''Eurabia'' to describe the associated political developments.

In her book Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, Bat Ye'or states that Eurabia is the result of the French-led European policy originally intended to increase European power against the United States by aligning its interests with those of the Arab countries. She regards it as a primary cause of European hostility to Israel, referring to joint Euro-Arab foreign policies that she characterizes as anti-American and anti-Zionist. The term is generally used in combination with "dhimmitude", another term popularized by Ye'or, denoting an attitude of concession, surrender and appeasement towards Islam. Her definition of Eurabia is:

Reception

Endorsement and proposed countermeasures

Current use of the term is focused on European leaders capitulation, collaboration, betrayal, Muslim immigration and demographics, and the difficulties of assimilating Europe's Islamic populations. In 2004, Niall Ferguson wrote in the ''New York Times'' that the idea of Eurabia has

The term is often used by writers such Oriana Fallaci, Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Melanie Phillips, Mark Steyn (and several web sites).

In 2009, an anonymously-created video proposing the thesis of Eurabia was uploaded to ''YouTube'', with the title "Muslim Demographics". After the video reached 10 million views, BBC News responded by producing the video Muslim Demographics: The Truth, presenting published population figures and statistics. The program concluded: "So how reliable are the statistics in the Muslim Demographics video? The short answer is: not very. But the long answer is more interesting, because the video is mix of the right, the wrong and the unknowable."

In 2006, according to MEMRI, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi delivered a speech predicting Europe would become a Muslim continent in a "few decades": Gaddafi quoted various figures: that there were 50 million Muslims in Europe, that enlargement of the European Union to Turkey would add 50 million Muslims in EU, that Bosnia was more than 50% Muslim, that Albania and Bosnia were already a part of the EU. He concluded by calling on the US and Europe to either become Muslim or "declare war on the Muslims". Geert Wilders reiterated Gaddafi's prediction that Europe will become Muslim and said "for once in his life, Gaddafi was telling the truth."

However, not all supporters of the theory see 'Eurabia' as inevitable. Ayaan Hirsi Ali proposes treating radical Islam like Nazism. Domestically, she proposes monitoring the Muslim population, and registering the religious identities of criminals who target women, Jews or homosexuals. She also seeks to ban all Muslim faith schools. She believes all new immigrants should pledge allegiance to the constitution and should be deported immediately if they "break it". Internationally she proposes reduction of the dependance on oil (by way of developing alternate energy).

''2083: A European Declaration of Independence'', the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, includes a lengthy discussion of and support for the "Eurabia" theory. As a result, the theory received widespread mainstream media attention following the attacks.

Rejection and analysis

''The Economist'', acknowledging that integration of immigrants was a difficult process, nevertheless rejected the concept of Eurabia as "scaremongering". Simon Kuper in ''Financial Times'' described Ye'or's book as "little-read but influential", and akin to "Protocols of the Elders of Zion in reverse", adding that "though ludicrous, Eurabia became the spiritual mother of a genre", but grants that "mixed with the hysteria are kernels of truth." In a another article, Kuper wrote that most academics who have analysed the demographics dismiss the predictions that the EU will have Muslim majorities.

According to Marján and Sapir, the very idea of "Eurabia" is "based on an extremist conspiracy theory, according to which Europe and the Arab states would join forces to make life impossible for Israel and Islamize the old continent."

Scholar Matt Carr writing in ''Race & Class'' expressed his concern that the theory of Eurabia had moved from "an outlandish conspiracy theory" to a more mainstream and "dangerous Islamophobic fantasy". He observes that Ye'or's "book has been well received, not only by established heralds of the Islamic threat, such as Melanie Phillips, Daniel Pipes and Oriana Fallaci, but by respected historians such as Niall Ferguson and Churchill’s biographer Martin Gilbert, who, whatever their political views, might at least be expected to recognise the absence of historical discipline or methodology when they see it." Carr then seeks to answer "What does the popularity of Eurabia in this circle reveal and what ideological function does it serve?", proposing that "On the one hand, Eurabia is a paranoid fantasy, which recalls the way that ‘international communism’ was perceived during the cold war. But, like the communist threat, it is also a politically convenient fantasy, particularly in the US, where Bat Ye’or’s theses have been well-received by the advocates of ‘permanent war’ against ‘militant Islam’. [...] At the same time, the depiction of a corrupt European political class secretly colluding with Islam is a variant on the neocon notion of ‘Old Europe’, whose supposed appeasement of terrorism contrasts with the ‘moral clarity’ emanating from the US. Last but not least, Eurabia also serves to legitimise the broader neocon social and economic agenda, since Europe’s coming demise is partly perceived to be the result of an ageing European population’s fatal addiction to an ‘unsustainable’ social model based on high pensions, early retirement and social security benefits."

Justin Vaisse, co-author of ''Integrating Islam Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France'', seeks to discredit, what he calls, "four myths of the alarmist school," using Muslims in France as an example. Specifically he wrote that the Muslim population growth rate was lower than that predicted by Eurabia, partly because the fertility rate of immigrants declines with integration. He further points out that Muslims are not a monolithic or cohesive group, and that many Muslims do seek to integrate politically and socially. Finally, he wrote that despite their numbers, Muslims have had little influence on French foreign policy.

David Aaronovitch writes that the proponents of Eurabia confuse Islamists with mainstream Muslims. He acknowledges that the threat of "jihadist terror" may be real, but that there was no threat of Eurabia. Aaronovitch concludes that those of study conspiracy theories will recognize Eurabia to be a theory that combines the Sad Dupes thesis to the Enemy Within idea.

The Eurabia theory has been compared by British columnist Johann Hari to historically antisemitic writing. He calls the two "startlingly similar" and says that "there are intellectuals on the British right who are propagating a conspiracy theory about Muslims that teeters very close to being a 21st century Protocols of the Elders of Mecca."

In his book ''Wars of Blood and Faith'', US military analyst Ralph Peters states that far from being about to take over Europe through demographic change, "Europe's Muslims are living on borrowed time" and that in the event of a major terrorist attack in Europe, thanks to the "ineradicable viciousness" of Europeans and what he perceives as a historical tendency to over-react to real or perceived threats, European Muslims "will be lucky if they're only deported."

Waleed Aly, in an article published in ''The Age'' (Melbourne), responding to Raphael Israeli's call for controls limiting Muslim immigration to Australia (lest a "critical mass" develop) observed that Raphael Israeli's comments are a cause for concern "because they are not as marginal as they are mad." Aly continues that Israeli's latest book "is an unoriginal appropriation of the 'Eurabia' conspiracy thesis of Jewish writer Bat Ye'or: that Europe is evolving into a post-Judeo-Christian civilisation increasingly subjugated to the jihadi ideology of Muslim migrants" and that the theory has received "enthusiastic support" from intellectuals in Europe and activists in the USA.

Notes

Further reading

See also

Demographics of Europe

Demographic threat

Ageing of Europe

Finlandization

Decadence

Arabs in Europe

Turks in Europe

Islam in Europe

*Islam in France

*Islam in the UK

**Londonistan (term)

*Islam in Germany

*Islam in the Netherlands

*Islam in Sweden

Immigration in Norway

Multiculturalism

Euromediterranean Partnership

Union for the Mediterranean

European Neighbourhood Policy

New antisemitism

Manifesto: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism

Stop Islamisation of Europe

Counterjihad

Books

Supporting

Bawer, Bruce, ''While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within'', New York, Doubleday, 2006 ISBN 0-385-51472-7

Blankley, Tony, ''The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?'', Washington, D.C., Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2005, ISBN 0-89526-015-8

Fallaci, Oriana, ''The Force of Reason'', New York, Rizzoli International, 2006 ISBN 0-8478-2753-4

Phillips, Melanie, ''Londonistan: How Britain is creating a terror state within'', San Francisco, Encounter Books, 2006, ISBN 1-59403-144-4

Spencer, Robert, ''The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades)'', Washington, D.C., Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2005 ISBN 0-89526-013-1

Spencer, Robert (ed.), ''The Myth of Islamic Tolerance'', Amherst, NY, Prometheus Books, 2005, ISBN 1-59102-249-5

Steyn, Mark ''America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It'', 2006, ISBN 0-89526-078-6

Trifkovic, Srdja, ''The Sword of the Prophet'', Boston, Regina Orthodox Press, 2002, ISBN 1-928653-11-1

Bat Ye'or, ''L'antisionisme euro-arabe'' in ''Nouveaux visages de l'antisémitisme: haine-passion ou haine historique?'', 2001, ISBN 9782913973169

Ye'or, Bat, ''Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis'', Madison, N.J., Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8386-4077-X

Ye'or, Bat, ''Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide'', Madison, N.J., Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8386-3942-9

Bat Ye'or, ''Europe, Globalization, and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1611474459

George Weigel, ''The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God'', Basic Books, 2005, ISBN 0-465-09266-7, (and )

Oswald Spengler, ''The Decline of the West'', 1923

Guillaume Faye, La Colonisation de l'Europe, 2000-01-05, ISBN 2-911202-30-9

Jean Raspail, ''The Camp of the Saints'', 1973

Bruce Thornton, ''Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow Motion Suicide'', Encounter Books, 2008

René Marchand, ''La France en danger d'Islam'', 2002 ("les démographes escomptent 20, 30 voire 50 millions de musulmans en France dans 50 ou 60 ans", "the demographers are expecting 20, 30 or 50 million Muslims in France by 50 or 60 years")

Sam Solomon, ''Modern Day Trojan Horse: Al-Hijra, The Islamic Doctrine of Immigration, Accepting Freedom or Imposing Islam?'', Advancing Native Missions, 2009, ISBN 0979492955

Christopher Caldwell, ''Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West'', Doubleday, 2009-07-28, ISBN 978-0-385-52924-2

Critical

Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaïsse, ''Integrating Islam Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France'', Washington, DC, Brookings Institution Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8157-5151-6

External links

''Britain's Growing Ethnic Division'', BBC video and transcript, 2007-05-07

''Author Cited by Norway Attacker Expresses Regret'', The Associated Press, 2011-07-25

lieutenant colonel Thomas Salo, ''Eurabia: Strategic Implications for the United States'', United States Army War College, 2010

Supporters

Niall Ferguson, ''Eurabia?'', The New York Times, 2004-04-04

Bruce Thornton, ''The Civilization of Dhimmitude'', 2005-03-26.

Giulio Meotti, ''Welcome to Eurabia'', 2011-05-02

Christopher Caldwell, ''Islamic Europe?'', The Weekly Standard, 2004-10-04

Adrian Michaels, ''Muslim Europe: the demographic time bomb transforming our continent'', telegraph.co.uk, 2009-08-08

Andrew Bostom, ''Bat Ye’or: “The universal caliphate stands before us”'', 2011-08-16.

Skeptics

Simon Kuper, ''The Crescent and the Cross, Financial Times, 2007-11-10

Thomas Jones, ''Short Cuts: How to concoct a conspiracy theory'', London Review of Books, July 2005

John Lichfield, ''Our Man In Paris: France will never be a Muslim state'', The Independent, 2004-02-03;

Johann Hari, '''America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It' by Mark Steyn'', New Statesman, 2007-03-12;

Øyvind Strømmen, ''The Elders of Mecca'', 2009-02-22;

William Underhill, ''Why Fears Of A Muslim Takeover Are All Wrong'', Newsweek, 2009-07-20;

Douglas Todd, ''Do Muslims seek to dominate the West? And could they do it?'', Vancouver Sun, 2009-08-15;

John Esposito and Sheila Lalwani, ''Debunking the myth of a 'Eurabia''', San Francisco Chronicle, 2011-02-07;

Øyvind Strømmen, ''So, what’s the deal with Fjordman?'', 2011-08-05;

Adam Keller, ''Drumont's Jewish disciple'', 2008-06-02

Daniel Luban, ''The New Anti-Semitism'', Tablet Magazine, 2010-08-19

Matt Carr, ''Christopher Caldwell dissected'', 2009

Laila Lalami, ''The New Inquisition'', The Nation, 2009-11-24

Andrew Moravcsik, ''Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West'', 2009

Justin Vaïsse, ''Eurabian Follies'', Foreign Policy, 2010-01

Justin Vaïsse, ''L'Europe islamisée : réflexions sur un genre littéraire américain'', Esprit, 2010-01

Category:Islamization Category:Euroscepticism Category:Conspiracy theories Category:Islam-related controversies Category:Political neologisms Category:Islam in Europe Category:Demographics of Europe Category:Anti-Islam

ca:Euràbia de:Eurabien es:Eurabia eo:Eŭrabio fr:Eurabia it:Eurabia he:אירוערביה (תאוריה) ms:Eurabia mk:Еврабија nl:Eurabia no:Eurabia pl:Eurabia pt:Eurábia ro:Eurabia ru:Еврабия fi:Eurabia sv:Eurabien zh:欧拉伯

Coordinates	29°25′″N98°30′″N
name	Ian Buruma
birth date	December 28, 1951
birth place	The Hague, Netherlands
occupation	Writer, Lecturer
nationality	Dutch
genre	Non-fiction
subject	Japan, Occidentalism, Orientalism}}

Ian Buruma (born December 28, 1951) is a British-Dutch writer and academic. Much of his work focuses on the culture of Asia, particularly that of 20th-century Japan.

He was born in The Hague, the Netherlands, to a Dutch father and British mother. He studied Chinese literature at Leiden University, and then Japanese film at Nihon University in Tokyo. He has held a number of editorial and academic positions, and has contributed numerous articles to the ''New York Review of Books''. He has been noted as a "well-regarded European intellectual."

In 2000 he delivered the Huizinga Lecture – ''Neoromanticism of writers in exile'' – in the Pieterskerk in Leiden, The Netherlands. He has held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C and St Antony's College, Oxford. In 2003 he became Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism at Bard College, New York.

Since 2005 he has resided in New York, USA.

In 2008 Buruma was awarded the Erasmus Prize, which is awarded to an individual who has made "an especially important contribution to culture, society or social science in Europe."

He is among the 100 top global thinkers of 2010, as selected by the ''Foreign Policy'' magazine. His contribution as a public intellectual, according to the magazine, is as follows:

Buruma is a nephew of the English film director John Schlesinger, a series of interviews with whom he published in book form.

Works

''The Japanese Tattoo'' (1980) with Donald Richie ISBN 978-0-8348-0228-5

''Behind the Mask: On Sexual Demons, Sacred Mothers, Transvestites, Gangsters, Drifters, and Other Japanese Cultural Heroes'' (1983) ISBN 978-0-452-00738-3

''Tokyo: Form and Spirit'' (1986) with James Brandon, Kenneth Frampton, Martin Friedman, Donald Richie ISBN 978-0810916906

''God's Dust: A Modern Asian Journey'' (1989) ISBN 978-0-7538-1089-7

''Great Cities of the World: Hong Kong'' (1991)

''Playing the Game'' (1991) novel ISBN 978-0374526337

''The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and in Japan'' (1994) ISBN 978-0-452-01156-4

''Geisha: The Life, the Voices, the Art'' (1998) with Jodi Cobb

''Voltaire's Coconuts, or Anglomania in Europe'' (UK title) (1998) or ''Anglomania: a European Love Affair'' (US title) (1999) ISBN 978-0-7538-0954-9

''The Missionary and the Libertine: Love and War in East and West'' (2000) compilation ISBN 978-0-571-21414-3

''De neo-romantiek van schrijvers in exil'' (Neoromanticism of writers in exile) (2000) ISBN 90-446-0028-1

''Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing'' (2001) ISBN 978-0-679-78136-3

''Inventing Japan: From Empire to Economic Miracle 1853–1964'' (2003) ISBN 978-0-679-64085-1

''Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies'' (2004) with Avishai Margalit ISBN 978-0-14-303487-2

''Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance'' (2006) ISBN 978-1-59420-108-0 winner of The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for the Best Current Interest Book.

''Conversations with John Schlesinger'' (2006) ISBN 0-375-75763-5

Commentary on the History of China for the time period of The Last Emperor, The Criterion Collection 2008 DVDs (ASIN: B000ZM1MIW, ISBN 9781604650143).

''The China Lover'' (2008) novel ISBN 978-1-59420-194-3

''Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents'' (2010) ISBN 978-0-691-13489-5, with some historical examples of the value the separation of religion and national governance with the separation of church and state as one example.

''Grenzen aan de vrijheid: van De Sade tot Wilders'' (''Limits to Freedom: From De Sade to Wilders'') (2010) – Essay for the Month of Philosophy in the Netherlands.

Essays

''China's class ceiling'', published in the Los Angeles Times

Notes

External links

Official Website, with curriculum vitae

Column archive at Project Syndicate

Column archive at ''The Guardian''

Column archive at ''The New York Review of Books''

Article archive at Journalisted

;Interviews

''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with Ian Buruma from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Ian Buruma discusses ''A Murder in Amsterdam'' [Video]

Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:Bard College faculty Category:British journalists Category:Dutch academics Category:Dutch journalists Category:Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford Category:People from The Hague Category:Historians of Japan Category:Nihon University alumni

de:Ian Buruma it:Ian Buruma la:Ioannes Buruma nl:Ian Buruma ja:イアン・ブルマ