An Islamo-Christian syncretism in Europe?
Michael Vlahos writes a thoughtful essay on what may happen to “Roman Europe” (France, Spain, Italy) in the future, say, by 2050, given that the Arab minority in Roman Europe will more than double by that year. Most thinkers seem to think that either Muslims will integrate, or they will end up living in ghettoes. He thinks there is a third possibility: a melange civilization. While this seems wholly new, it is not. He uses the earlier years of the Ottoman Empire to make his point, relying on a new book by Heath Lowry, called The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. Lowry argues that a “religio-social hybrid Islamochristian entity” emerged. For a century and more the Ottoman Empire was a new and unexampled mlange civilization. This mid-size essay is worth a look.
