One will not likely find many people in the Boston phone book who would prefer to join the foreign army than their own in the event of a war between the United States and a foreign nation. In Europe, that certainty no longer exists.

Last week, my good friend David Brooks reminded us of a famous saying of the late Bill Buckley. As Buckley said, he would rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty.

There is usually more common sense, indeed wisdom, in the opinions of the common man than in the theories of intellectuals and even of professional politicians.

On opening the Brussels phone book and browsing through its first 2,000 names, however, one quickly realizes that to advocate Buckley's advice in contemporary Western Europe would lead to the installation of rulers with names reminiscent of Arabian Nights, names such as Aarab, Abbas, Abdel Kader, Abdellaoui, Al Mahi, Al Maghreb El Jadid, ...

The face of the old continent is changing faster than many realize and the repercussions are already being felt in Europe's elections. In many countries the Muslim vote is on the brink of tipping or has already tipped the electoral balance. Most immigration into Europe has been welfare immigration. Hence, it is no wonder that the immigrant vote favors the Left.

In the Netherlands, 70% of the immigrants participated in the 2006 Dutch general elections, with over 80% of them voting for the left. In the 2005 German general elections, 94% of the Germans of immigrant (mainly Turkish) origin voted for the parties of the left - Socialists, Greens or "Post"-Communists – who gained 51.1% of the national vote. In France, a country with over 10% Muslims, their electoral clout has become so important that even the far-right Front National tries to attract part of the Muslim vote.

The new generation of immigrant politicians cater for their fellow Muslims. They have little in common with the former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born immigrant who was a Muslim apostate advocating anti-islamic legislation. Ms Hirsi Ali left the Dutch parliament in 2006 and moved to the United States.

The newly elected immigrant politicians, on the contrary, represent a growing and demographically young electorate that insists on asserting its Muslim identity. Their loyalties lie more with their countries of origin than with the Dutch nation, which they look upon mainly as a welfare distributing Santa Claus. In Belgium, Ergün Top, a Turkish-born Muslim politician who ran for the Senate last year, admitted that he feels more loyalty towards Turkey than towards Belgium. He told an audience of Turkish-born Belgian voters that if there ever were a war between Belgium and Turkey, he would join the Turkish army and fight Belgium.

This indicates that turning the tide of Islamization in Europe will be very difficult. So here is a new statement to replace Bill Buckley's famous words: If the first 2,000 names in the phone book sound more exotic than the university's faculty staff, elections are likely to be won by the Left and Sharia law is just around the corner.

 
Paul Belien is an Adjunct Fellow of The Hudson Institute. This article was first published at the website of The Hudson Institute New York