Pity Europe?

Once again, Europe is burning with fury. It has only been a few months after French of Arab and black African descent burned cars and caused havoc in France, and now, Muslims in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran have burned down their Danish embassies (as well as the Norwegian embassy in Syria); Muslims in countries like Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Indonesia are inciting further violence, in addition to the public uproar among Muslims worldwide.

All because of some cartoons.

My understanding it Islamic law forbids any visual representation of Allah or the prophet Muhammad. What is murky is who is subject to Islamic law and who isn't. Still, I can see why Muslims can be offended by the cartoons, which includes a drawing of the prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

I do pity Europeans and their dilemma. Most Western European countries now have sizable Muslim minorities, and the majority of them have yet to integrate into European society, many of them forming an underclass relegated to ethnic ghettos. I would say that European countries provide better social welfare to their ethnic minorities, whether they're legal immigrants or refugees, than the US provide to their's. Therefore, Europeans probably feel that they've done enough for the Muslim immigrants and their offspring. If these immigrants are given subsidized public housing, have access to public education and health care, and are even given living allowances, pensions, and unemployment benefits, what are they complaining about?

The alienation of Europe's Muslim populations has fuelled mass ethnic violence and fears of terrorism, even terrorist attacks. Not only do Europeans fear attacks on their physical lives, but they also fear attacks on their institutions and their way of life. The offending cartoons, for example, were published because of the principle of freedom of speech. Who is willing to let go of the hard-won freedom of expression, won after centuries of struggle?

I have the utmost admiration for Europe's historical legacies, its institutions, its relics, and its culture. It would be a shame if Europe's churches and museums are burned, its liberalism dies, its culture is dissolved, and its ideas and institutions eroded. Yet it is under threat from within. I'd hate to say this, especially as a scholar (and advocate) of migration and integration, but it's true. These threats are real.

On the other hand, Europe is paying the price for its sins. What sins? Europe changed the world during the Age of Imperialism, subjugating people all over the world, disrupting their traditional ways of life, and imposing European values upon them. These have turned out to be irreversible, and in the end, Europeans (and the Americans) have established the rules and set the standards. Only a tiny few have been able to escape the world of international trade and of capitalist economics, of cultural norms such as wearing clothes, and of political norms of liberal democracy (which can do more harm than good in MOST cases, if you ask me!). Europeans have since become a bit more humane, but not totally. Although Europeans no longer sail across the world to enslave and and dominate people at gunpoint, aren't agricultural subsidies and trade quotas on agricultural imports ultimately inhumane? I think so.

On the other hand, should Europeans who are alive today pay the price of the sins of their ancestors?