While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within

by Bruce Bawer

Book Overview

The struggle for the soul of Europe today is every bit as dire and consequential as it was in the 1930s. Then, in Weimar, Germany, the center did not hold, and the light of civilization nearly went... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385514727
• ISBN13: 9780385514729
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

European reader: Bawer is right

As a European I can tell you, Bawer has some strong and convincing arguments about the European crisis. Let the European crisis be a warning for what are the results of a political correct society that promotes cultural relativism. Be warned and read this well written book, it's a quick read.

Terrific reporting on European senescence in the face of the Jihadist threat

If you have read "Londonistan" by Melanie Phillips, you can see this as a companion volume for the Continent. If you haven't read that book, then you should read this book AND that book. Really. And then add in "American Jihad" or any other book by the indispensable Steve Emerson. But you certainly should read this book. It is written well and is clearly reported. Bruce Bawer is a very talented writer who has written books and articles for gay rights, same-sex marriage, and against conservative evangelicals. Even in this book (pg. 33) he calls Jerry Falwell "an unsavory creep", says that James Dobson's parenting advice is "appalling". However, he notes that Falwell wasn't issuing fatwas, that Dobson wasn't telling people to murder their daughters, and that while Pat Robertson wanted to deny him marriage [to his same sex partner], the imams wanted to drop a wall on him. Honest and clear insights that one can parse and agree with in the large sweep, while disagreeing with its parts (or agree, if you are so inclined). He notes "I traveled to the Netherlands in 1997 and thought I'd found the closest thing to heaven on earth. What sentient being, I wondered wouldn't want to liver there?" Yet things had changed so much that a survey from April 2005 showed that every third Dutchman wanted to leave the country. This book report the excruciating events and changes that are occurring in most of Europe that has led to this deterioration. Bawer does not pull any punches in stating his view that is the rise of the Muslim influence with a certain intransigent, bullying, and non-Western traditions that is destroying Europe. The author is more alarmist about Europe than Pat Buchanan is about America and notes why. He assures us that what is happening now in Europe is coming to America and judges that it is only a matter of time until Sharia law is given place in the legal system of Europe and the sad day that will be. There are so many shocking events that he documents in this book that I cannot share even all the most disturbing ones. However, he notes on page 66 that a report stated that 65 percent of rapes in Norway were committed by "non-Western immigrants (a term that in Norway is essentially synonymous with "Muslims")". He notes that when Unni Wikan, a professor of social anthropology, was asked for comment she said that "Norwegian women must take their share of responsibility for these rapes". And if that weren't appalling enough, she added, " Norwegian women must realize that we live in a multicultural society and adapt to it." Can you imagine if that were said in America? He also documents the kind of social rot that is part and parcel of the European senescence. They so love their social democracies that they are willing to compromise their heritage, principles, and even a strong sense of reality in order to prop them up with this poisonous brand of immigration. Again, it is too much to document here. I also found his docum

Depressing, but essential reading

This book is even more depressing than Londonistan, which I just finished (I ordered both together). Slowly working my way through the whole genre (Robert Spencer books, Eurabia, etc), which I'll call "WTF Is Happening In The World And Why Is No One Doing Anything Serious About It". These books, including While Europe Slept, are not PC, not "Religion Of Peace" oriented, not multiculturalist, not in sync with any of the psychobabble that seemingly has taken over the planet. What this book is is honest. And well-written. "While Europe Slept" can best be compared to Eurabia and Londonistan, as all three deal, in slightly different ways, with the gradual takeover of Europe by the Religion of Peace - and with Europe's submissive cowardice and unwillingness to protect and preserve its culture and history. Eurabia and Londonistan are a bit more academic and scholarly, with more rigorous footnotes and references. Due to their more scholarly approach, they are bit more bulletproof for dealing with the tedious PC-multiculti critics. "While Europe Slept" is more conversational, easier to read, easy on the eyes, and anecdotal. I actually enjoyed (if one can use that word to describe reading for two nights about the demise of civilization) this one the most of any in the genre, because it is "lighter reading" - more "storytelling" than "master's thesis". While Europe Slept tells a story that maybe 5 or 10 % of the Western World understands intuitively, instinctively, and instantly as the real truth: Islam is on the march, energized, aggressive, confident, and as this book explains extremely well, soon to take over Europe. The Europeans are just not ready for this struggle. This book focuses a lot on the situation in the Scandinavian countries, but does touch on Germany, France, Spain, etc., too. Across Europe, a bland political correctness has so pervaded the mindset that they simply cannot acknowledge the huge threat. A quarter of the population under age 18 in some of those countries are Moslem, living in totally segregated communities, barely (if at all) speaking the native language, seething, brooding, and lusting for conflict. You would think that the Madrid and London bombings would have woken people up over there, but in reality it has led to greater calls for appeasement. As this book explains, our "allies" over there are just scared out of their minds over the threat within their own countries and do not have the stomach for dealing with the problem, if they even acknowledge it as existing. "While Europe Slept" covers a broad range of issues in Europe, from the nearly 1930's Germany style anti-Jewish sentiment (and acts, such as cemetary desecrations, attacks on Jewish people (12 per day on average in Paris now), and firebombings of temples, etc., sweeping across Europe to the equally virulent and nearly demented anti-Americanism. Not to mention the growing, intractcable situation of violent middle easterners living in their own

Will Europe Do It Again?

I picked up this book because the title echoed John F. Kennedy's "Why England Slept" of 1940. At the time, tired Europe was willing to try anything to avoid another blood bath like the Great War--ANYTHING! Appeasement had earned a bad reputation by 1940. Today, Europe is habituated to appeasing aggressors. History has been rewritten to conform to establishment prejudices--yup! The PC effect! Europe's "free press" is not--Bruce Bawer documents this vigorously. The Internet is melting down EU "press control," as other viewpoints are becoming public knowledge. Before, if it wasn't "mainstream press," it was unknown--even when most of Europe's residents differed from the party line--they didn't have a voice. Europeans were appeasing the Communist Block until the Berlin Wall fell--then the Western European governments were at a loss. The threat of radical Islam is real. Bawer also raises the spector of a reactionary backlash--the very same thing that Mussolini rode to power in the 1920's and Hitler used to achieve power in the 1930's. Europe has forgotten the Red Tide and Franco and the rest. Don't forget--according to the Islamic Imperialists, Europe is "occupied Islamic territory." Not only must it be reconquered, but cleansed in fire and blood. Has Islam been high-jacked by power-hungry totalitarians? Or is it a religion of conquest? Like Europeans, Muslims are conformists who have a single, tainted viewpoint force-fed to them. Step out of line, and you get exiled from "the world." You might even have to move to America! "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destrouying the West From Within" documents the part of the "War On Terror" that wasn't publicized until the wave of bombings last year. I've been aware of the Islamic "unrest" in Europe since the early 1960's even though I couldn't read and write yet--I was in France in 1960 during the little civil war the French government and the French military officer corps had over Algeria. The Munich Olympics massacre (like the Texas Tower incident in the United States) led to European governments fielding SWAT-like police or military units--or both. During my active duty Army time in Europe, the "Turkish guest worker problem" was common knowledge--but the Russian bear got all of the attention. Bawer doesn't cover this--his book covers the man-in-the-street point of view during his long residence in Europe. I recommend this book because it appears that European history is repeating itself--Europe is allowing the barbaric to seize and exercise power. There is a parallel in the United States--the problem of illegal immigration and its attendant effects on crime, the economy, and political corruption. Illegal aliens in the United States vote? I can't do a whole lot about the French or the European Union's insane policies, but I do have a voice here in the United States. We can learn from others' mistakes, or we can make those same mistakes again ourselves. Read "While Eu

Exceptionally Illuminating

I bought this book hoping to get a better understanding of what was going on in Europe with their Muslim immigrant population (things like the car-burning riots in Paris, areas of Netherlands ruled by Sharia and not Dutch law, etc., left me quizzical). Well, I got that understanding. And I got a lot more, not the least are vital insights as to just how very different Europe is from the US. The author is both a clear writer, and an excellent journalist who digs down into the entrails to bring forth the real guts of a story. The information he brilliantly provided often left me with my jaw hanging, wondering, "That's really what they think over there?" I learned an awful lot in the short time it took to read this book. I honestly think that every American should read it. It is a clarion call to not repeat the myopic, multicultural mistakes that have gotten European countries into a fix that I honestly don't see how they can get out of now. You will acquire a clear portrait of the attitudes of Muslims in Europe, as well as those of elitist Europeans in all of their moral smugness and self-assuming superiority. Many themes are presented, but perhaps the over-arching theme is that tolerance for the intolerable (wife beating, genital mutilation, honor killing, rape, etc.) is never ever a good policy for a freedom loving, individual-respecting society. While Europe Slept makes a highly readable contribution to the discussion on the impact of Mideastern Islam with the democractic West. It also has a lot to say about the role that the United States has played in this drama. It turns out that we are not nearly as bad as those who claim to hate us say we are. Reading this book had the unsuspected effect of leaving me feeling even more blessed and happy that I am one of those lucky ones to be an American. What else can I say except that this is a really, really good book. It brought a lot of light into an area that previously was something of a mystery. Highly recommended.