A review of The West’s Last Chance by Tony Blankley

Regnery 2005.

Blankley’s thesis is quite simple: America (and other Western nations like Australia) have an enormous amount to lose if the West does not halt the slide of Europe into Eurabia. Eurabia is what many are calling the ongoing Arab (Muslim) takeover of Europe. Blankley argues that the transformation of Europe into an Islamic continent is every bit as worrying as the prospect of Europe being subsumed by the Nazis last century.

The transformation is mainly being fueled by population decline among ethnic Europeans, coupled with ongoing Muslim immigration. Muslim families of course continue to be much larger than European families, so demographic changes alone would seem to guarantee a Muslim majority in Europe perhaps by the end of this century.

Consider the figures: A few hundred thousand Muslims lived in Europe thirty years ago. Today there are over 20 million, and the numbers are climbing fast. Right now 40 per cent of the population in Rotterdam is Muslim. Surveys of British Muslims in 2004 found that 61 per cent wanted sharia law; 26 per cent believed Muslims had already integrated too much into British society; and only about 70 per cent would turn in a fellow Muslim if he were a terrorist.

Anecdotal evidence also verifies the numbers. For example, there are today many European cities which contain no-go zones in which ethnic Europeans even armed police dare not enter.

But it is not just this rising wave of Islam that is transforming Europe. There is also the decline of the very heart and soul of Europe. Two thousands years of the Judeo-Christian heritage and all its fruit, including democracy, freedom and human rights – is in deep decline. Indeed, it is at risk of being replaced with a continent ruled by sharia law.

Europe’s forty to fifty year experiment with multiculturalism, notes Blankley, has been a dismal failure. While some Muslims have integrated, many have not. Indeed, growing numbers of Muslims in Europe do not want to integrate but to dominate.

This point needs to be emphasized. The truth is, there are divisions within the European Islamic community as to how they should proceed. Some do want to integrate fully, and that should be encouraged. But some want to remain separate, and some want to convert the West to Islam. And the separatists come in various varieties, including peaceful and violent. But of concern is the fact that while only a minority are resorting to violence, increasingly the majority are condoning or excusing the violence.

While these trends suggest that Europe is racing inevitably toward a Eurabian fate, Blankley suggests it is not a foregone conclusion, especially if the West has the will to turn things around. He says that now is the time for Europe to make a choice: what does it really value? Does it value more the granting of rights and tolerance to those who wish to destroy it, or does it value the survival of western civilisation?

Blankley sees signs of hope, especially since 2004. While the American wake-up call was September 11, 2001, it took three more years for Europe. That is because in 2004 three events woke up slumbering Europe: the Madrid train bombing in March, the Beslan, Russia massacre in September, and the assassination of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in November.

While Europe had been used to terrorist acts on their home soil, these three episodes opened the eyes of many Europeans, and sparked a raging debate about the nature of Europe itself, the success or otherwise of multiculturalism, and the religious clash of civilizations.

But Blankley rightly asks, can a largely secular Europe rally itself to the cause? A continent that has lost its own soul may be ill-equipped to stand up and fight. But he sees some hope here as well: Europe may not be quite as secular as many suppose, and small but encouraging signs point to a possible rebirth in religion and European identity.

Developing stronger ties with Europe, as hard as that may be, is in America’s interests here. Blankley suggests other measures are needed in the war against terror. They include acknowledging that we are in a war; identifying the enemy (Islamic jihadists); making an official declaration of war; and making some painful decisions about internal security.

Just as America and Britain were willing to temporarily curtail some individual liberties in the face of the Nazi threat, so we too should be willing to do the same against the Islamists. This might include steps such as national identity cards; increased border protection; ethnic profiling, especially at vital areas like airports; and as a last resort, more possible military action in the Middle East.

These are the steps a reluctant West must take if it is to properly respond to the threat of Islamic terrorism. In all this Blankley is mildly optimistic. If we have the will to recognize and counter this new threat to the West, we can prevail. But that is the million dollar question: do we have that will? Reading this book might help to strengthen that resolve.

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