Volume 53, Number 15 · October 5, 2006
Islam in Europe
By Timothy Garton Ash
Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
by Ian Buruma
Penguin, 278 pp., $24.95
The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Free Press, 187 pp., $19.95
Earlier this year, I visited the famous basilica of Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris. I admired the magnificent tombs and funerary monuments of the kings and queens of France, including that of Charles Martel ('the hammer'), whose victory over the invading Muslim armies near Poitiers in 732 AD is traditionally held to have halted the Islamization of Europe.[1] Stepping out of the basilica, I walked a hundred yards across the Place Victor Hugo to the main commercial street, which was thronged with local shoppers of Arab and African origin, including many women wearing the hijab. I caught myself thinking: So the Muslims have won the Battle of Poitiers after all! Won it not by force of arms, but by peaceful immigration and fertility.
Review, 4746 words
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