Swiss vote on minarets seen as protest against failure to assimilate Muslim immigrants

December 09, 2009

In a provocative essay on the Swiss vote to ban the construction of minarets, David Goldman of First Things argues that the people of Switzerland—and Europe generally—are reacting not only against radical Islam, but against the supposition that even moderate Muslims cannot and should not be integrated into traditional European society. “Whether Muslim immigrants to Europe are assimilable is unclear, since Europe’s institutions have made no effort to assimilate them,” he writes.

Islamic immigration has produced a separate society, governed by its own cultural standards and growing in power. Goldman is not ready to go as far as Bernard Lewis, who famously predicted that Europe would have a Muslim majority before the end of this century. But he notes that “the enormous and growing presence of Islamic institutions in Europe jars the existing culture, and provides a host for a truly frightening extremist minority.” The fault, he argues, lies with leaders who make no effort to persuade the Muslim immigrants to adopt European cultural mores.

“Abandoned by their leaders, Switzerland’s voters took matters into their own hands,” he concludes.

 

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Further information:

• The “European Street” on Minarets (First Things)