Europe, prepare to greet Islam

A year ago, I interviewed octogenarian Otto von Habsburg, who, if history had taken a different turn, would be the Austro-Hungarian emperor. Instead, the long-time member of the European Parliament dedicated his entire life to the idea of a united Europe.

For centuries, the ruling Habsburgs defended the Continent against the expansion of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Now Mr. von Habsburg makes it clear that all nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea – including those in North Africa and the Middle East – have a place in his broad vision for tomorrow's Europe. Malta and Cyprus are already knocking at Brussels' doors.

Some may label von Habsburg as a nostalgic dreamer trying to resuscitate the spirit of the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg hereditary title. But those who understand the Mediterranean phenomenon know how closely linked are the populations of its coasts, dating back to the ancient Greeks and Phoenicians. Of course, the Mediterranean of Saint Augustine and tolerant medieval Islam is a very different place from the Mediterranean of the holy jihad. It also can be argued that the Mediterranean of a year ago is a different world from the Mediterranean of today.

Nearly every week brings news of another rusty boat loaded with refugees in the territorial waters of Italy, France, or Spain. Three hundred to five hundred "boat people" cross at a time – Kurds (from Turkey and Iraq), Afghans and Pakistanis, Tunisians and Moroccans. Risking it all in this dangerous game, they have only a miserable life to lose – but stand to gain a better life for themselves and their children.

Because of official French policy toward minorities, it is not easy to find out how many Algerians, Moroccans, or Tunisians are already living in the country. The closest one can get are religious statistics that assess the number of French Muslims at 4 million. Roughly 1 million of them live in metropolitan Paris and their numbers are growing exponentially due to a high birthrate.

In Italy, the center of the Arab/Muslim culture is in the country's financial capital, Milan. But growth of the Islamic population is accelerating mainly in the poorer south – around Naples and in Sicily. Germany chronically struggles with the cultural assimilation of second- and third-generation Turks and Kurds whose fathers came to the country as Gastarbeiter to work at jobs nobody else wanted. Benelux and Scandinavia became the home of huge Arab communities, too. And hundreds of thousands of Bosnian or Albanian Muslims flooded Western Europe as a result of the Balkan wars.

In the meantime, the wealthy western part of Europe is beginning to feel the impact of a low birthrate trend. Countries like Germany, France, and Italy need an influx of hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year in order to maintain a balanced demographic structure.

There may be a temptation to open the borders to educated and culturally compatible immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. The German parliament has recently approved an immigration law offering green cards to young computer experts – a Machiavellian method of demographic infusion. But there are also thousands of emigrants from North Africa and the Middle East making it to the European coasts without invitation.

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