For one, what is fundamentalist and radical Islam? There's no such thing. The Quran is the literal word of Allah spoken through the prophet Muhammad. Period. There are Muslims who believe in Islam and the entire political/social/theological basis that it represents, and then there are unfaithful Muslims who, like most Christians in the West, aren't really Christian/Muslim. That's something that everyone here needs to accept as a fact. There is no "moderate Islam". Yes, there are separate sects within Islam and some are a bit more militant than others(Salafism/Wahhabism being the most well-known) but the fact remains that Islam as a whole is a militant religion. It always has been, always will be. There has never been in the history of Islam and Europe a peace between them. They did not live side-by-side as equals in harmony for centuries anywhere as someone stated in a previous page. You can say that the Christians of Al-Andalus or the Ottoman Empire were prosperous for much of history, sure; In the same way that black South Africans under Apartheid were prosperous in comparison to other Africans elsewhere in the continent during the 20th century. It doesn't take away the fact that Islam still dominated them and that the Christians didn't like being second class citizens or vice versa depending on the region and era. Once one side loses complete dominance, the other rebels from under them and the cycle continues until the tables turn again. It's always been either Christians dominating Muslims or Muslims dominating Christians. If there was ever incomplete dominance, then there was war and rebellion. Name any century after the birth of Islam and I can guarantee you there will be at least a handful of wars/revolts between Europeans and the Islamic World during that timeframe.
Neither culture is compatible with the other. It doesn't matter whether the year is 732, 1453, 1683, 1961, or 2015. Dates are merely numbers on a timeline measuring the length of this ancient conflict. There was no end of history and how many electronic gadgets you have in your pocket or how "progressive" your social welfare net is won't change that.The French once understood this very well in Algeria back when it was once considered a part of Metropolitan France, yet most people were not French citizens there. This wasn't necessarily because the French hated Algerians but because they understood the incompatibility between France's secular humanist traditions(Christian morality made secular) and Islam at the time. An Algerian had the possibility of becoming French if they did only two things: Learn French and renounce Islam. Most chose their religion over the wealth they could amass as a French citizen. The same thing will occur again. The vast majority of Muslims will choose their way of life over money, each and every time. The reason this isn't understood by many in the West today is due to the fact that in the modern West, everything is based upon money and consumerism. Why would you believe in some hokey mysticism when you could instead make twice as much money? Decadence has indeed blinded most Westerners from having a true understanding of non-Western cultures in this way.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Europeans will continue to avoid making the hard decisions today only to realize tomorrow that they'll have to make much harder and harsher decisions. Europe will either nip this problem in the bud by accepting that Islam is a problem and must be assimilated out while it can be or wait until the problem is unbearable and fascism carries a lower opportunity cost to put forth the "final solution"(eg. Spanish Inquisition-style expulsions or Nazi Germany-style genocide).
I wish it didn't have to be this way but reality is rarely kind to mere wishes. Also, my apologies for coming off as pretentious.
Neither culture is compatible with the other. It doesn't matter whether the year is 732, 1453, 1683, 1961, or 2015. Dates are merely numbers on a timeline measuring the length of this ancient conflict. There was no end of history and how many electronic gadgets you have in your pocket or how "progressive" your social welfare net is won't change that.The French once understood this very well in Algeria back when it was once considered a part of Metropolitan France, yet most people were not French citizens there. This wasn't necessarily because the French hated Algerians but because they understood the incompatibility between France's secular humanist traditions(Christian morality made secular) and Islam at the time. An Algerian had the possibility of becoming French if they did only two things: Learn French and renounce Islam. Most chose their religion over the wealth they could amass as a French citizen. The same thing will occur again. The vast majority of Muslims will choose their way of life over money, each and every time. The reason this isn't understood by many in the West today is due to the fact that in the modern West, everything is based upon money and consumerism. Why would you believe in some hokey mysticism when you could instead make twice as much money? Decadence has indeed blinded most Westerners from having a true understanding of non-Western cultures in this way.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Europeans will continue to avoid making the hard decisions today only to realize tomorrow that they'll have to make much harder and harsher decisions. Europe will either nip this problem in the bud by accepting that Islam is a problem and must be assimilated out while it can be or wait until the problem is unbearable and fascism carries a lower opportunity cost to put forth the "final solution"(eg. Spanish Inquisition-style expulsions or Nazi Germany-style genocide).
I wish it didn't have to be this way but reality is rarely kind to mere wishes. Also, my apologies for coming off as pretentious.