The Myth of the Muslim Tide : Do Immigrants Threaten the West?

"From the author of prize-winning Arrival City, a controversial and long-overdue rejoinder to the overblown fears of an Islamic threat that have spread throughout America and Europe and threaten our basic values. The July 2011 shooting spree in Norway shocked the world, especially when it emerged that the killer had written a 1,500-page manifesto denouncing the impact of Islam on Western society. While Anders Breivik was almost certainly insane, he was motivated by an extreme opposition to Islam that has pervaded segments of Western culture. In The Myth of the Muslim Tide, Doug Saunders offers a brave challenge to these ideas, debunking popular misconceptions about Muslims and their effect on the communities in which they live. He demonstrates how modern Islamophobia echoes historical responses to earlier immigrant groups, especially Jews and Catholics. Above all, he provides a set of concrete proposals to help absorb these newcomers and make immigration work. The most important trend of the twenty-first century will be a massive global migration to cities, much of it by Muslims. Rather than responding with fear and resentment, this book shows us how to benefit from this inevitable change"--;Popular fiction. The new neighbours ; Crescent fever : the brief history of an idea ; The parties of Eurabia ; A very American invasion -- The facts. Population ; Integration ; Extremism -- We've been here before. The Catholic tide ; The Jewish tide -- What we ought to worry about. The invention of the Muslim people ; The problem of integration ; The privatization of religion ; Escaping the prison house of culture. From the author of prize-winning Arrival City , a controversial and long-overdue rejoinder to the excessive fears of an Islamic threat that have spread throughout America and Europe and threaten our basic values. Since September 11, 2001, a growing chorus has warned that Western society and values are at risk of being overrun by a tide of Islamic immigrants. These sentiments reached their most extreme expression in July 2011, with Anders Breivik’s shooting spree in Norway. Breivik left behind a 1500 page manifesto denouncing the impact of Islam on the West, which showed how his thinking had been shaped by anti-immigrant writings that had appeared widely in books and respectable publications. In The Myth of the Muslim Tide , Doug Saunders offers a brave challenge to these ideas, debunking popular misconceptions about Muslims and their effect on the communities in which they live. He demonstrates how modern Islamophobia echoes historical responses to earlier immigrant groups, especially Jews and Catholics. Above all, he provides a set of concrete proposals to help absorb these newcomers and make immigration work. The most important trend of the twenty-first century will be a massive global migration to cities and across international borders. Rather than responding to our new religious-minority neighbours with fear and resentment, this book shows us how we can make this change work to our advantage. "From the author of prize-winning Arrival City, a controversial and long-overdue rejoinder to the overblown fears of an Islamic threat that have spread throughout America and Europe and threaten our basic values. The July 2011 shooting spree in Norway shocked the world, especially when it emerged that the killer had written a 1,500-page manifesto denouncing the impact of Islam on Western society. While Anders Breivik was almost certainly insane, he was motivated by an extreme opposition to Islam that has pervaded segments of Western culture. In The Myth of the Muslim Tide, Doug Saunders offers a brave challenge to these ideas, debunking popular misconceptions about Muslims and their effect on the communities in which they live. He demonstrates how modern Islamophobia echoes historical responses to earlier immigrant groups, especially Jews and Catholics. Above all, he provides a set of concrete proposals to help absorb these newcomers and make immigration work. The most important trend of the twenty-first century will be a massive global migration to cities, much of it by Muslims. Rather than responding with fear and resentment, this book shows us how to benefit from this inevitable change"-- Provided by publisher