If Charles Martel had lost the battle of Poiters in 732, if the Christian armies of King Alfonso VIII of Castille had not defeated Spain’s Almohads at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, or if Jan III Sobieski had not broken the Ottoman’s 1683 siege of Vienna, Europe might very well be a Moslem region. The Christians of Europe saved their culture only through Herculean (and frequently un-Christian) efforts, as with Crusade and Inquisition they protected their faith from infidel and heretic alike. Yet despite their efforts they were unable to keep the Turk from their doorstep. Eastern Europe spent some five hundred years dominated by the Sultan’s armies, while Arabic translations of classic philosophy helped spark the Italian Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.

Some of Europe’s Moslems have been there since the days of the Ottoman Empire. Others arrived to fill European post-war labor shortages, or in the wake of the chaos which followed the end of Europe’s colonial period. All have found themselves under increasing scrutiny after September 11. Once Europe played “the Great Game,” equipping armies and planning revolutions and counter-revolutions from a safe distance. Today the Great Game plays out in the European streets, as Turkish/Kurdish disputes flare up in Germany while the Palestinian/Israeli conflict leads to synagogue-burning and mob violence in France. Today the average European enters a church three times; for two of these he is carried in. The fervor which launched armies has been replaced by a bland secular humanism, as Torquemada has been replaced by Voltaire. And yet tensions between nominally Christian Europeans and the Moslems living among them persist.

Albania

Bosnia

Bulgaria

England

France

Germany