"European civilisation has sown the seeds of its own decline and fall
...From here, too, at a more mortal crisis in Europe�s history, the Ottoman Empire stretched to every point of the compass, around the Black Sea, across the Middle East, into North Africa and deeper and deeper into a collapsing Europe. Today, it seems that the Caliph�s successors are reclaiming that territory, only this time moving more or less unopposed towards their goal.
These twin threats � the economic challenge of fiercely competitive globalisation and a political challenge to the culturally deracinated, splintering societies � are driving Europe into debilitating turmoil.
Interestingly, these threats converge again today in modern Turkey, an economically dynamic nation of 70 million Muslims, whose hopes of ending centuries of geographical ambivalence and joining the European club were dealt a final shattering blow this week. More important, though, it was these two forces, which lay directly behind respectively the French and Dutch �no� votes, that have intensified the mood of crisis. "
More:Opinion - Gerard Baker US Editor Times Online
