Hard bigotry and low expectations

Last week, I reported briefly on a reception for author Bat Ye’or hosted by columnist Diana West in honor of the publication of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. In this work, Ye’or argues that Europe is transforming itself, through its foreign, economic, cultural and immigration policies, into a new Islamicized geo-political entity. Here is Diana’s column that appeared the following day in the Washington Times.
Diana contrasts the clear-eyed, well-researched analysis of Ye’or to the muddled, politically correct utterances of Craig Smith of the New York Times. Smith views the fear of ordinary Europeans about the Islamization of the continent as a purely right-wing and essentially irrational phenomenon. Never mind that, in parts of Paris, Jewish children cannot attend school without justifiable fear of being beaten, and Jewish adults (such as my wife’s cousin) cannot take public transportation without justifiable fear of being verbally and physically abused. Such is the bigotry and, indeed, raw hatred towards Jews exhibited by large segments of the Arab immigrant youth.
Where, then, is the irrationality Smith perceives in the children and grand-children of Holocaust victims supporting anti-immigrationists in Belgium? Such support strikes me as the clear corollary of “never again.” But why would we expect the Timesman to understand this?

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses