At the opening of his trial on Monday, February 7, for inciting hatred, the Dutch right-wing populist Geert Wilders warned of the Islamisation of the West.
The columnist Henk A. Hofland is covering the trial.
“Wilders and his fellow campaigners in Europe and the U.S. are distorting reality,” he writes. “The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt are not a consequence of Islamist expansion, which is the basic tenet held by Wilders and his soul mates. The opposition there arose from the peoples’ need for the type of freedom and prosperity prevalent in the West.…
“It is not the West that must fear the expansion of Islam but the other way round. Our part of the world has a lifestyle which is becoming increasingly attractive to the oppressed proletariat of the Middle East.…
“We are a permanent cause of unrest in the Arab world without there being any underlying imperialist plan, simply because we live in a society of irresistible consumerism and export this image daily via the new media.…
“Think what you will about this, but the culture of consumption is having an eroding impact on religious belief.”
Source: NRC Handelsblad, Netherlands
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
I hope he’s right.
So do I.
While Islam is a minor motivator of the Tunisian/Egyptian/to-be-announced struggles in the Middle East, the pressure is a function of:
- expanding populations,
- economic stagnation,
- corruption,
- oppression and
- bottom up communication.
1968 anyone?
Well, 1968 changed OUR world……
Again I ask whether it is not too early to know whether what has taken, or is taking, place can properly be termed “revolutions” as opposed to regime changes.
Who would have thought two weeks ago that there might be talk talk about civilian control of the military before the end of the month? It may not happen, of course, but that kind of talk is – what is it? – pretty….(okay, I won’t use the r-word).