Not so long ago our Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was expressing himself positively about Turkey’s prospects of entering the European Union and such an addition could make for an even stronger Europe. The major hurdle still seems to be the Kurdish question and more reform action from the government of Turkey:
http://news.google.co.uk/news?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1W1ADFA_sv&q=Carl%20Bildt%20on%20Turkey
Today, in spite of having an EU president who appears to be hostile to the idea of Turkey’s entry into the European Union the issue continues to be somewhere near the top of the agenda not on the back burner – Turkey after all being the country in Europe with the second largest army in NATO – in my opinion could (would?) be better within the Union than outside of it. And then there’s the crux of the matter – granted that there’s the general Christian character of European civilisation and culture as a major consideration – ay there’s the rub – that it would or should be unlikely – and in my opinion unreasonable to expect that Turkey be asked to contribute troops to Obama’s offensive war in Afghanistan. Such sensitive issues are and will forever be discussable, given Turkey’s Islamic identity
Once there was this kind of question:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Morocco+to+join+EU%3F&
Over here, in the past few weeks the Local and the rest of the Swedish media has featured news and opinion items about the rise in popularity of the Sweden Democrats Party ( more than 5%) and Sweden Democrats’ attitude to Islam and their general fear – reasonable or unreasonable – of the Islamization of Sweden and outside of Sweden, other paranoid views about Europe’s possible national incarnation into Eurabia, even as Christmas is almost here.
More importantly, here’s an interesting article by Bassam Tibi :
http://www.meforum.org/2047/islamists-approach-europe
Also of some relevance is an article to be found in Spring 2009
http://www.meforum.org/meq/archive.php
A wicked article in the summer of 2008:
http://www.meforum.org/1927/european-converts-to-terrorism
1984
And then back to 1994 when the doyen wrote this:
http://www.meforum.org/216/why-turkey-is-the-only-muslim-democracy