While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within (Hardcover)

by Bruce Bawer (Author)
Key Phrases: Western Europe, United States, European Muslims (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Having recently published an indictment of Christian fundamentalist intolerance in the U.S. (Stealing Jesus), New York native Bawer relocated to Europe with his Norwegian partner in 1998 and found an even more dangerous strain of religious and cultural bigotry ensnaring Western Europe. A swarming menace called radical Islam, he writes, rings Europe's cities in smoldering Muslim ghettos, provoking everything from so-called honor killings and political assassinations to the Madrid subway bombings and the massacre of school children in Beslan. Worse, the Taliban-like theocracy Bawer sees looming inside backward immigrant populations resistant to integration flourishes under the protective wing of Western Europe's America-bashing, multicultural, liberal establishment. The latter correspond to the appeasers of Nazi Germany, in Bawer's view, since he believes that radical Islamism is every bit the threat to Western civilization that Nazism was. He scoffs at talk of "understanding" or "dialogue," indeed, at any but the most muscular response hitching Europe ever tighter to the U.S. war on terror. His clash-of-civilizations outlook means real issues often get washed away by sweeping statements designed to tar Europe's Muslims with one irredeemably hostile, welfare-sponging brush, while trading in well-worn stereotypes about virtuous American "realists" and corrupt European "idealists." (Mar.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
Bruce Bawer, who has wrestled previously about American fundamentalism (Stealing Jesus) and gay rights (A Place at the Table), finds an equally contentious and compelling subject in the blind eye of European liberalism. Enchanted by the famed tolerance of Amsterdam, Bawer moved to Europe in 1998. But after settling in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, the author noticed a society that offered "millions in aid, but not a penny in salary." Reviewers find Bawer an eloquent writer with his passion balanced between his American sensibilities and his European residence. The sharpest criticism—that a lack of a bibliography turns While Europe Slept into an exercise in pamphleteering—doesn't undermine the ultimate effectiveness, or importance, of Bawer's thesis.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385514727
• ISBN-13: 978-0385514729
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (229 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #208,689 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

546 of 587 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptionally Illuminating, February 25, 2006

By	Kat Bakhu (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book hoping to get a better understanding of what was going on in Europe with their Muslim immigrant population (things like the car-burning riots in Paris, areas of Netherlands ruled by Sharia and not Dutch law, etc., left me quizzical). Well, I got that understanding. And I got a lot more, not the least are vital insights as to just how very different Europe is from the US. The author is both a clear writer, and an excellent journalist who digs down into the entrails to bring forth the real guts of a story. The information he brilliantly provided often left me with my jaw hanging, wondering, "That's really what they think over there?" I learned an awful lot in the short time it took to read this book.

I honestly think that every American should read it. It is a clarion call to not repeat the myopic, multicultural mistakes that have gotten European countries into a fix that I honestly don't see how they can get out of now. You will acquire a clear portrait of the attitudes of Muslims in Europe, as well as those of elitist Europeans in all of their moral smugness and self-assuming superiority. Many themes are presented, but perhaps the over-arching theme is that tolerance for the intolerable (wife beating, genital mutilation, honor killing, rape, etc.) is never ever a good policy for a freedom loving, individual-respecting society.

While Europe Slept makes a highly readable contribution to the discussion on the impact of Mideastern Islam with the democractic West. It also has a lot to say about the role that the United States has played in this drama. It turns out that we are not nearly as bad as those who claim to hate us say we are. Reading this book had the unsuspected effect of leaving me feeling even more blessed and happy that I am one of those lucky ones to be an American. What else can I say except that this is a really, really good book. It brought a lot of light into an area that previously was something of a mystery. Highly recommended.

403 of 447 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will Europe Do It Again?, February 28, 2006

By	Alan D. Cranford (Carson City, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up this book because the title echoed John F. Kennedy's "Why England Slept" of 1940. At the time, tired Europe was willing to try anything to avoid another blood bath like the Great War--ANYTHING! Appeasement had earned a bad reputation by 1940.

Today, Europe is habituated to appeasing aggressors. History has been rewritten to conform to establishment prejudices--yup! The PC effect! Europe's "free press" is not--Bruce Bawer documents this vigorously. The Internet is melting down EU "press control," as other viewpoints are becoming public knowledge. Before, if it wasn't "mainstream press," it was unknown--even when most of Europe's residents differed from the party line--they didn't have a voice. Europeans were appeasing the Communist Block until the Berlin Wall fell--then the Western European governments were at a loss.

The threat of radical Islam is real. Bawer also raises the spector of a reactionary backlash--the very same thing that Mussolini rode to power in the 1920's and Hitler used to achieve power in the 1930's. Europe has forgotten the Red Tide and Franco and the rest. Don't forget--according to the Islamic Imperialists, Europe is "occupied Islamic territory." Not only must it be reconquered, but cleansed in fire and blood.

Has Islam been high-jacked by power-hungry totalitarians? Or is it a religion of conquest? Like Europeans, Muslims are conformists who have a single, tainted viewpoint force-fed to them. Step out of line, and you get exiled from "the world." You might even have to move to America! "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destrouying the West From Within" documents the part of the "War On Terror" that wasn't publicized until the wave of bombings last year. I've been aware of the Islamic "unrest" in Europe since the early 1960's even though I couldn't read and write yet--I was in France in 1960 during the little civil war the French government and the French military officer corps had over Algeria. The Munich Olympics massacre (like the Texas Tower incident in the United States) led to European governments fielding SWAT-like police or military units--or both. During my active duty Army time in Europe, the "Turkish guest worker problem" was common knowledge--but the Russian bear got all of the attention. Bawer doesn't cover this--his book covers the man-in-the-street point of view during his long residence in Europe.

I recommend this book because it appears that European history is repeating itself--Europe is allowing the barbaric to seize and exercise power. There is a parallel in the United States--the problem of illegal immigration and its attendant effects on crime, the economy, and political corruption. Illegal aliens in the United States vote? I can't do a whole lot about the French or the European Union's insane policies, but I do have a voice here in the United States. We can learn from others' mistakes, or we can make those same mistakes again ourselves. Read "While Europe Slept" and decide for yourself.

99 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars European reader: Bawer is right, December 5, 2006

By	Eduward du Bois (Europe) - See all my reviews

As a European I can tell you, Bawer has some strong and convincing arguments about the European crisis. Let the European crisis be a warning for what are the results of a political correct society that promotes cultural relativism. Be warned and read this well written book, it's a quick read.