Hi mac,

Yes, by this time next year, 1.5 million refugees will have flooded into Europe from Turkey/Greece, and perhaps as many from the southern shore of the Mediterranean.

If ISIS gets a strong foothold in Libya, those figures across the Mediterranean will rise dramatically, as a part of deliberate ISIS policy - to hustle as many people from the south through Libya and across the Sea as possible, as quickly as possible.

The next elections for the European parliament may be a bitterly-fought campaign - as Houllebecq suggests - but will the centre swing to the extreme right, i.e. capitulate to the Islamists, or merely to the conservative right, to the parties of le Pen, Farage, Wilders ? The current governments in Poland, the Baltics, Hungary, don't seem too enthusiastic about ever-more refugee intakes.

So suppose, against Houllebecq, the 'mob' swings to National Fronts, etc. ? Could the European parliament grow a pair and firm up its policy against uncontrolled refugee intakes ? Or will it roll over ? In relation to the ISIS-promoted 'invasion' from the three-thousand-mile southern shores of the Mediterranean, across to Europe's soft underbelly, will the newly-backboned EU then find that, quickly, it will have to invade that entire southern coast-line, in order to control it ?

Yes, it's a dreadfully complicated world.

Cheers,

Joe

Loudmouth,

Yes, it's a dreadfully complicated world, made much more complicated, particularly in Europe, by that continent's political elites, who seem determined to run an uncontrolled social experiment and then hope for the best. The Turks appear to have successfully extorted concessions from the Eurocrats----visa free entry into the EU and a fast track for Turkey's membership. There must be very few times in history where states have capitulated to far weaker opponents because of lack of will.

The other obvious problem is that the Left, such as it is these days, has wilfully ignored the real totalitarian nature of Islam and left the realistic debate to the Right. The Eastern Europeans are not going to accept large numbers of Muslim refugees, they have long memories.

Regards

Russell.

Hi Mac,

Yes, I think it's time to clarify who is Right, and who is supporting the extreme Right. There is no real Left any more, only apologists for the extreme Right Islamists - and the Right such as le Pen, Farage, Wilders, the Eastrn European governments , and (I suspect0 the ordinary masses of Europeans).

After all, surely, nobody is claiming that somehow the Islamists are 'Left' ? Christ, even they wouldn't be that hypocritical, only the children of the pseudo-Left are going to fall for that.

So perhaps we need to stress as often as possible that Islamists are far to the Right of what is considered the Right-wing in Europe. Le Pen, Farage and Wilders are, in fact, the champions of the New Post-Left.

You know it makes sense.

Cheers,

Joe

LM

As to your - in my opinion correct - point on Islamists being on the (far) right and nobody honestly claiming they are of the left, perhaps for clarity you could adopt a term rarely used these days in the mainstream media, but succinct in its meaning: "Islamofascists".

Hi Jonathan,

Yes, I've used that term myself a few times and it is used in this fascinating book:

http://www.conflicts.rem33.com/images/books/Ibn%20Warraq%20-%20Why%20I%20Am%20Not%20a%20Muslim.pdf

I guess the questions is whether ISIS and similar groups are some sort of fascist off-shoot of Islam, or is Islam itself at least totalitarian, certainly in many of its expressions in the modern world.

Joe

LM

Thanks for the link to the book. Apparently Christopher Hitchens claimed it was his favourite book on Islam.

That's a good enough recommendation for me to read it.