This article is 14 years old and when it was written I would have laughed at the suggestion that the culture war would eventually involve fundamentalists of all religions and secularists of all ethnic origins taking opposing sides- especially given that fear of the Muslim was higher among the self identified Christians in Europe than among the seculars. However, the author has since been proven right. As the culture war moves into identity issues, rather than civic national issues, the authors prediction in this sentence “ In the Pluropa of the next century, fears of Islamic conquest may also fade as seculars and fundamentalists of all kinds struggle for the soul of Europe.” has come true, at least to an extent.
I’ve seen a growing alliance between, for example, white supremacist groups and Muslim fundamentalists- an alliance based on a shared hatred of lgbtq and Jews. In among those groups, however, are ultra conservative jews who are happy to side with Muslim fundamentalists and white supremacists when it comes to homosexuals and gender issues.
This of course started in America where conservative Muslims in Michigan would be the natural allies of white conservative Christians from the Deep South when it comes to protesting a gay pride flag or a book which mentions gay people in the school library.
The culture wars are fascinating to watch- albeit terrifying too- because, with the exception of this author and a few others who were prescient to the natural alliance religious conservatives would have with each other despite their denominational differences not many people would have imagined, in the late 00s-early 10s, that conservative European nationalists and ultra religious Muslims would have found an alliance.
Perhaps the most ironic development is that the elements of the culture war who are more interested in race, rather than sexuality, gender or women’s suffrage, have now joined with the secular side because secularism is something which is very European and is in fact intolerable to people from many non European cultures.
This article is 14 years old and when it was written I would have laughed at the suggestion that the culture war would eventually involve fundamentalists of all religions and secularists of all ethnic origins taking opposing sides- especially given that fear of the Muslim was higher among the self identified Christians in Europe than among the seculars. However, the author has since been proven right. As the culture war moves into identity issues, rather than civic national issues, the authors prediction in this sentence “ In the Pluropa of the next century, fears of Islamic conquest may also fade as seculars and fundamentalists of all kinds struggle for the soul of Europe.” has come true, at least to an extent.
I’ve seen a growing alliance between, for example, white supremacist groups and Muslim fundamentalists- an alliance based on a shared hatred of lgbtq and Jews. In among those groups, however, are ultra conservative jews who are happy to side with Muslim fundamentalists and white supremacists when it comes to homosexuals and gender issues.
This of course started in America where conservative Muslims in Michigan would be the natural allies of white conservative Christians from the Deep South when it comes to protesting a gay pride flag or a book which mentions gay people in the school library.
The culture wars are fascinating to watch- albeit terrifying too- because, with the exception of this author and a few others who were prescient to the natural alliance religious conservatives would have with each other despite their denominational differences not many people would have imagined, in the late 00s-early 10s, that conservative European nationalists and ultra religious Muslims would have found an alliance.
Perhaps the most ironic development is that the elements of the culture war who are more interested in race, rather than sexuality, gender or women’s suffrage, have now joined with the secular side because secularism is something which is very European and is in fact intolerable to people from many non European cultures.
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/53907/europes-muslim-future