February 27, 2005 Cover Story Putting the fear of God into Holland By Brian Moynahan
ÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ.Cardinal Adrianis Simonis of Utrecht believes that the "spiritual vacuity" of Dutch society has left the Netherlands open to an Islamic cultural takeover. "Today we have discovered that we are disarmed in the face of the Islamic danger," he said recently. He linked this to "the spectacle of extreme moral decadence and spiritual decline" that Europe offered to young people.
"Political leaders ask whether the Muslims will accept our values," he said. "I ask, 'What values are those? Gay marriage? Euthanasia?'" The cardinal said that the time when Christians "would fight and die for their faith" were long past, but he hoped "tragic acts" like the van Gogh murder "will force us to recover our identity".
The Vatican has spoken of an "inquisition" taking place against religiosity in Europe. In Spain, JosŽ Zapatero's socialist party is engaged in a running battle with the Church. He has made religious education optional, and eased divorce laws, and loosened limits on abortion. A law allowing same-sex marriages and adoptions by gay parents is scheduled to be passed this spring.
The Pope has accused the Spanish government of promoting "scorn and ignorance" towards religion, and added that its "permissive morality" would damage the "imprint of Catholic faith in Spanish culture and restrict religious liberty". There is an irony to this. Zapatero owed much of his unexpected poll victory to the Moroccan bombers who killed 190 people on Madrid trains last March. Electors rounded on the Conservative government for mishandling the atrocity.
The bombers claimed their handiwork was revenge, not only for Spanish troops in Iraq, but also for the loss of Al-Andalus (Andalusia) five centuries ago. Zapatero duly withdrew the troops, and granted privileges to Spain's new mosques.
Is Europe giving way to blackmail? The question was raised in Germany last month by an article in Die Welt, the country's most heavyweight paper, by Mathias Dœpfner, head of the big Axel Springer publishing group. He titled it Europe Ñ Thy Name Is Cowardice. He said that a crusade is under way "by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open western societies" that is set upon the "utter destruction" of western civilisation. This enemy, he said, was spurred on by "tolerance" and "accommodation", which were taken as signs of weakness. Europe's supine response, he said, was on a par with the appeasement of Hitler.
