A Change in Europe?

Tony Blankly opines in The Washington Times the Europe, catalyzed by the murder of Theo van Gogh, is now ready to fully enter the War on Terror.

This Christmastime could be the moment when Western Europe finally joins our war on terrorism. Anti-Islamist fear and anger from the mouths of the European volk is breaking through the surface calm perpetuated by the elite European appeasers. The assassination and mutilation of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic fanatic — and the retaliatory firebombings of mosques by ethnic Dutchmen — have forced high European leaders and news outlets to begin to publicly face up to the implications of September 11, 2001 and the migration of Muslims in large and hostile numbers into the heart of Europe.

I am not sure that he is wrong about this, but it is interesting to note the differences here between Europe and America. Blankly says in his article:

Heating the German national broth is the re-emergence of a call for German "Leitkultur," the term for the dominant and guiding culture. Der Spiegel quotes Christian Democratic leader Joerg Schoenbohm: "In the Middle Ages, ghettos were founded to marginalize the Jews. Today, some of the foreigners who live with us in Germany have founded their own ghettos because they scorn us Germans. Those who come here have to adopt the German Leitkultur. Our history has developed over a thousand years. We cannot allow that this basis of our commonality be destroyed by foreigners."

America has no similar concept. There is no such thing as American 'Leitkultur' the closest we have is an every changing pop-culture and a heritage of being a melting pot. Similarly, while there was some violence directed at Muslims after 9/11, it was extremely minor. Holland has expirienced more anti-Muslim activity following the murder of van Gogh than America did after the murder of 3000 of our citizens. I expect that the two differences are not unrelated. While I certainly hope that Europe gets serious about the War on Terror, I admit to being a little nervous about the manner in which it will do so. To put it bluntly, their are strains of European culture that we have fought wars to stamp out. I don't want to see the War on Terror become transformed in Europe as a means to revive those dark impulses.