The peoples of Europe, in creating an ever closer union among them, are resolved to share a peaceful future based on common values. Conscious of its spiritual and moral heritage, the Union is founded on the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality …Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected. From the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Europe has a Muslim problem, is something I’ve been thinking of ever since we got back from Europe, and have been afraid to say out loud. Europe is caught between its founding values and being drastically changed. The European Union may have started for economic reasons but common social values have become as important and those values were spelled out with the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997 and then put in concrete with the Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2000. Those values include a respect for human rights and the dignity of the human being. Those values demand that Europe accept the huge number of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (refugees that were created, in good part, by previous European actions as well as the first world lifestyle that is polluting the atmosphere which has resulted in an increased desertification of these areas). 

The history of Europe is, in many ways, the history of Christianity.  As an aside, sort of, I originally wrote the first sentence the other way around. They are that intertwined. End aside. Every village, no matter how small, has a church and driving through the countryside, the first sight of a village is always the church steeple. Every city, no matter how sophisticated, has a cathedral. These churches and cathedrals are so important to the culture of Europe – France and Germany, at least – that there is even a special tax to maintain them. When we were in Schifferstadt – everywhere, well, in both Germany and France, at least – we were really aware of the church bells.  They start about seven in the morning, go on a morning frenzied binge shortly afterward, and ring every fifteen minutes throughout the day. They are marginally annoying. 

Now, in Schifferstadt, the new Muslim immigrants say that all that bell ringing is too much. I agree with them but the natives grew up with the bells and they like them, they are part of their national culture and heritage. If that weren’t enough, the Muslims want to be able to broadcast The Call to Prayer five times a day including dawn and at night, which is not what the natives want. 

Muslims made up about 5% of the population of Europe in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center and that is supposed to grow to about 10% by 2050 even if immigration stops; because the Europeans are older and the immigrants are having more babies per capita. The pressure to leave the Middle East and North Africa is only going to increase so the immigrant population will probably be much higher. These immigrants also want to be treated as humans, with dignity, freedom, and equality, after all, that is the core value of Europe, that is what makes Europe, Europe. But they are from wildly different cultures. Different religions, yes, but of more importance, different cultures. Their coming to Europe in big numbers will change Europe but keeping them out will change Europe even more.