The title of Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept is adapted from Winston Churchill’s 1938 book While England Slept, which addressed England’s policy of appeasement towards Hitler’s Germany and a lack of preparation for WWII. Bawer makes a similar argument, asserting that Europe is not taking the threat of militant Islamic fundamentalism seriously enough. He divides the book into three sections, Before 9/11: Europe in Denial, 9/11 and After: Blaming Americans and Jews , and Europe's Weimar Moment: The Liberal Resistance and Its Prospects. The Weimar Republic was the federal republic established in Germany after WW1, which many historians see as a period when Europe could have stopped Hitler from developing Germany into a military superpower. Likewise, Bawer argues that this is the time period when Europe needs to be pro-active and stop Islamic fundamentalists from developing the power to start a war, potentially WWII. Bawar, like Churchill, is attacking the policy of appeasement, and condemning Europe for allowing radical Islam to grow too strong for a variety of reasons, including political correctness and liberal passivity. However, his book exploits emotional issues to make his point, the words used in his three sections emphasize 9/11, denial, Jews, blaming and then Weimer – he does leave out mentioning Hitler by name, which would have added to the “disturbing” element he was looking for.
While Europe Slept argues that the liberal traditions of Europe, which include an open society and tolerance of others, is facing a Hitler-esque threat from Muslims who reject European values and refuse to integrate. Any violent movement can be seen as disturbing, and radical Islamic terrorists are scary, as the recent beheadings clearly show the kind of threat that exists. However, Bawar begins his argument acknowledging that most Muslims are not terrorists, but then spends the rest of the book focusing on the threat from terrorists, without examining the true extent of the problem amongst the normal population. This could be compared to a book about the “Christian threat” in the U.S., focusing on Ku Klux Klan members, who are both Christians and terrorists, but not representative of Christian America or a serious or substantial threat. While Europe Slept raises good issues – the book is enlightening - it seems to blow the magnitude of the problem out of proportion. The book takes the growing European and American unease about immigration and turns it into a discussion on what could conceivably be WWIII. This may be a way of deliberately making the book “disturbing”, but it would be much more credible if it focused more on realistic problems associated with immigration, like entitlement programs or ways to promote positive assimilation and tolerance of diversity.
First Bewar looks at immigration, and portrays it as a cultural and demographic threat created by Muslims who are unwilling to assimilate. At the root of the problem are the Muslim’s themselves, who bring “customs that are flagrantly inconsistent with a Western understanding of human rights” (Bawer 11). Bawer does take a step back and examines the European governments, who are also part of the problem: “From Norway to Italy, governments shower immigrants with benefits, yet corral them into ghettos, prevent them from becoming real citizens and turn a blind eye to Muslim attacks on women, Jews and gays” (Bawer 48). Again, Bawers uses the emotional word ghetto, implying a German Nazi – Jew situation. According to Bewar, the reason Muslims are put into separate enclaves is a type of confused racist multiculturalism that looks condescendingly and patronizingly on immigrants, instead of encouraging them to adapt to cultural norms. In this regard, Bewar looks to the U.S. and their tradition of promoting immigrant assimilation into the mainstream population.
After addressing the problem, While Europe Slept then notches up the disturbing level when he describes what could happen if Europe does not rise to the challenge of radical Islamic fundamentalism. Two things will happen, according to Bawer, either Europe will surrender its culture, or explode in civil wars. Bawer believes the U.S. has done a better job of rejecting the ideal of Islamic fundamentalism. Politically, he describes Islam as a form of totalitarianism, again using Nazi terms. Against this Facist threat, Bawer blames Europe for appeasing the enemy with "self-destructive passivity" in “the name of religious tolerance.” Bewar does compile a compelling argument against many Islamic practices that are culturally not “democratic” or even humane. For example, he discusses female genital mutilation. Despite being “common” in countries outside Western Europe, only “one person has ever been put on trial for subjecting a child to such an operation.” He also discusses the high rates of inter-family violence and domestic assaults on women, which – unlike genital mutilation - do seem to exist in Western countries.
Bawer paints a scary dystopic future for Europe, resembling a science-fiction film. However, there does not seem to be much direct violence. He instead describes a creeping Islamization that changes the passive culture from the inside out, like the Goths absorbing the Romans, or the effectiveness of Muslims in spreading the word of Mohammed. By not assimilating, the Muslims are “becoming” European culture. Bawer examines a number of examples of this process. In some parts of France and Sweden some women are “compelled” to wear headscarves to avoid being raped. He also points out the murders of Dutch politician Theo van Gogh and filmmaker Theo van Gogh. To avoid myriad problems, from economic to existential, Europeans bend over backwards not to offend Muslims. Bewar calls this "mindless, self-destructive multiculturalism" that caters to Neo-Facists and will result in the “suicide of Europe”.
While Europe Slept is both disturbing and enlightening. Bewar makes it disturbing by using emotional language to examine hot topic issues like immigration and comparing almost everything to Hitler. His warning is that small capitulations, like those made before WWII, will lead to larger ones; and the time wasted will allow the enemy to get stronger until it will be too late to resist them. Islam will eventually absorb Europe:
In the end, Europe's enemy is not Islam, or even radical Islam. Europe's
enemy is itself—its self-destructive passivity, its softness toward tyranny,
its reflexive inclination to appease, and its uncomprehending distaste for America's pride, courage, and resolve in the face of a deadly foe" (Bawer 128).
Without a standing army, and without a declaration of war, comparing Islam to Hitler is a
big leap. Bewar tells his story through a subjective personal lens without a great deal of
academic rigor. He raises valid points, some Islamic practices – such as forced marriage –
violate objective norms that should transcend cultures. However, to compare an entire
religious group to Nazi Germany is pure hyperbole, and the deliberately disturbing
arguments seems to degrade into generalizations and stereotypes. Finally, his argument
that the U.S. has somehow figured out how to deal with Islamic fundamentalism is just
wrong, as most American military generals from Iraq and Afghanistan can attest. While
European passivity may be allowing problems to be exacerbated, the “War on Terror”
can not be seen as an effective alternative.
Work Cited
Bawer, Bruce. While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from
within. New York: Doubleday, 2006. Print.
