So claims US columnist Diana West. But don’t give up hope, all is not lost:
“Of the parties dedicated to resisting Islamization that I examined in Europe last summer, the most promising range from the sizeable Vlaams Belang in Belgium to the tiny Sweden Democrats, and include the Lega Nord in Italy, the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders in Holland, the Danish People’s Party, the Swiss People’s Party and the Austrian Freedom Party.
“Such parties are unknown here, or ignored. Worse, they are shunned. Why? I believe it’s because their respective political opponents – the leftist media and governing establishments that are increasingly dependent on Islamic support, by the way – have successfully slandered these parties as ‘extremists’, ‘racists’, ‘fascists’ and ‘Nazis’.
“Is advocating freedom of speech ‘extreme’ or ‘fascist’? Is opposing Islam’s law, which knows no race, ‘racist’? Is supporting Israel (which these parties do far more than other European parties) ‘Nazi’? The outrageously empty epithets of the Islamo-socialist left seem calculated to stop thought cold and trigger a massive rejection reflex. In this way, resistance becomes anathema, and Islamic law, unchecked, spreads across Europe.”
TownHall.com, 18 September 2008
Vlaams Belang, to take just one example of the far-right parties that West endorses, is the successor organisation to the Vlaams Blok which formally disbanded in 2004 after being successfully prosecuted for “incitement to hate and discrimination”. It can trace its origins back to Nazi collaborators in the Second World War who assisted the occupation forces in sending thousands of Belgian Jews to their deaths.
Another racism row flared up in Switzerland after the country’s far-right party managed to trigger a referendum on banning minarets in the country.
Far right groups in Switzerland have collected enough signatures to force a nationwide referendum on banning minarets, the distinctive towers of Islamic architecture.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has been widely criticised for donning a white headscarf to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Well-known for her stand on women’s rights, she has provoked headlines such as “Just like a submissive woman”.
“Over the past year or so the rural Italian idyll of Colle di Val d’Elsa has played host to a bitter battle for Enlightenment values. On one side, the hamlet’s small Muslim community has raised a considerable amount of money to build a large mosque. Having gained the mayor’s approval, the Muslims signed a declaration of cooperation with the town hall and even planted a Christmas tree at the site as a good-will gesture.
Switzerland’s rightwing People’s party, accused of racism and fanning Islamophobia, strengthened its position as the country’s leading political force yesterday, gaining more than 2 percentage points to win a general election for the second time in a row, according to projections.
Peter Beaumont warns against the threat from Christoph Blocher and the racist Swiss People’s Party (SVP):
From London’s docklands to the rolling hills of Tuscany, from southern Austria to Amsterdam and Cologne, the issue of Islamic architecture and its impact on citadels of “western civilisation” is increasingly contentious.