How Many Muslims Does it Take to Screw Up A Country?

10% of that countries population, according to the not-at-all-likely-to-inspire-additional-Islamic-animus-named-Professor, Raphael Israeli.

See, Professor Israeli, citing the land of burning Peugeots, has apparently quantified this figure. Here is the Professor:

"Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it - they don't have the backing of big communities. They know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved."

In Australia, Muslims account for about 1.5 per cent of the population.

Professor Israeli said that in France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political, economic and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies.

"French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return.

"If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible."

This actually relates to something that has bothered me since the news broke about the possibility of "Sudden Jihad Syndrome" in...Salt Lake City.

I mean, the Muslim population of Salt Lake City could probably hold prayer meetings inside a phone booth. And when you stand out as different, isnt it natural to feel that your actions are magnified or that more "eyes" are on you all the time?

So, wouldn't that serve to limit your actions? After all, it must be harder to feel you could get away with something if you also feel everyone is watching you.

So how emboldened must jihadist Muslims in, say, Dearborn, Michigan or in huge population centers like New York City, feel? In those cities they readily mix in and become "invisible" as their numbers are large enough to make their existence part of the normal backdrop of everyday life. And if they are comfortable, and emboldened, how daring might their plots be?

After all, as the Professor says:

"The trains in London and Madrid were not blown up by Christians or Buddhists but by Muslims, so it is them we have to beware," he said.

Indeed.

You say you want to hear more from Professor Israeli? I live to serve.

Professor Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities.

He said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance.

"Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilaly [a reference to the controversial cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly of Lakemba mosque]. Why?"

Well, for starters, the Greeks don't use violence (unless a vicious slap fight counts) because they are all gay. Tim Hardaway told me that. The Italians? Well, sure...if the Mafia existed, the Mafia might do some bad things. If it existed. The Jews? Oy, don't get me started, what with their blood drinking and their control of the media and their cut-throat diamond business.

Besides, Sully implies that Pope Benedict XVI is a controversial Catholic cleric. Hasn't Israeli gotten an "Important Action Alert" about this?

All kidding aside, the Professor has an important point underneath all this rather un-PC speak. It's a question of assimilation. The groups that he singles out have managed the trick of assimilating into the mainstream of the cultures they joined, while also retaining the traits that make them unique.

With radical Muslims, however, this feat seems increasingly impossible. When immigrants to a place like Canada can start demanding that Sharia be the governing law, or when Canadian officials have to start putting out the word (as has happened recently) that stoning women is not an acceptable form of punishment in Canada, it shows that not only do many Muslims not want to assimilate, their view of assimilation is "join our ways or die".

They are basically the Borg, if the Borg were still stuck in the 11th Century.

So how does one deal with the Borg?

Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence. "You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque."

I'd call that a starting point for the Aussies. You go after the body by killing the head, after all, and there can be little question that Mosques and Madrassas are often the center of Jihadist "calls to action" and organization.

Anyway, this article made me curious as to what the US population of Muslims was in percentage terms. I have no idea what sort of methodology (if any) Israeli used to come up with his "10%" figure, but lets assume that there is, in reality, a "tipping point" number, and that Israeli may have actually come within a point or two either way of expressing it.

Wikipedia has a fascinating demographic page here. It states that among those people who express a religious preference, the Muslim population of the United States is currently at 0.6%, but that it has increased 109% since 1990.

Oh...and the 1.5% Muslim population in Australia? That's roughly equal to the proportion of Latter Day Saints in the United States.

The closest number to 10%?

Methodists. At 7.2%.

But as Professor Israeli would remind us, they don't blow up trains.

posted by Jack M. at 10:46 AM

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