"Muslims will Soon Outnumber Christians in Europe, So Making Muslims Mad at Us is the Very Worst Thing We Can Do!"

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Jan Jambon

It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay.
It's not okay but it's too late.

Koen Geens and Jan Jambon are, respectively, the Ministers of Justice and the Interior in the current "centre-right" Belgian coalition government. They, and the political parties they represent, are as responsible as anyone for the current "reality" that they describe.

It goes without saying that contrary to what Jambon claims, it is not the case that "the overwhelming majority" of Muslims in Europe share European values (see below). If it were the case, then Geens and Jambon would not be arguing that we need to get those Muslims on our side. They would already be on our side.

As it happens, the proportion of redheads in the population of the Low Countries is roughly equal* to the proportion of Muslims. But no one lives in fear that rude tweets about Molly Ringwald will set off suicide bomb attacks in Brussels or deadly riots in Breda.    

And of course, Islam has viewed the non-Islamic world as an enemy ever since its founding almost 1400 years ago. What we might think, one way or the other, doesn't change that.    

From The Sun:  

Muslims will soon outnumber Christians in Europe, a Belgian minister has claimed. 

Speaking at a hearing into the Brussels attacks, Koen Geens said the European Community may not realise it “but this is the reality”. 

His comments were followed by Belgian deputy prime minister Jan Jambon warning against Europeans “making an enemy of Islam” describing it as “the worst thing we can do”. 

Speaking at the EU Parliament, Mr Geens said: "In Europe, very shortly we’re soon going to have more practising Muslims than practicing Christians." 

“That is not because there are too many Muslims, it is because Christian are generally less practicing. Europe does not realize this, but this is the reality. 

Mr Jambon then added: “I’ve said a thousand times, the worst thing we can do is to make an enemy of Islam. That is the very worst thing we could do. 

“We have 600,000 to 700,000 Muslims in Belgium and the overwhelming majority of those people share our values. 

“To make an enemy of all of those people, we really will be creating problems. We need to see who the terrorists are, who supports the terrorists, what networks are there to support them. 

“That is who we need to tackle and we need to get all of the rest of the Muslims on our side not working against us.”

*Or at least it used to be roughly equal, say twenty years ago. The current proportion of Muslims is almost certainly higher.