An interview with Christopher Caldwell...

I'm now reading his book on immigration in Europe right now, and I readily recommend it to everybody...

You warn against the influence of Islam in Europe. "Immigration doesn't strengthen or affirm European culture; it is taking it place. Europe doesn't welcome its new residents; it gives way to them," you write.

"I'm not suggesting that all European countries will be ruled by a council of Muslim clerics, or that Islam will become the dominant culture. It's not about radical scenarios like that. What I'm talking about is deep changes to Europe's core values, in order to accommodate Islam. A good example is the discussion in the Netherlands about criminalising blasphemy. Or the French court that agreed with a Muslim man who wanted to have his marriage annulled because his wife wasn't a virgin.

"Some countries are changing their laws, from laws that are deeply rooted in European culture to laws that try to mediate between cultures. Look at Denmark. If you had told a Dane a few years back that there would be a law banning young Danish citizens who marry foreigners from outside the European Union from living in Denmark for a number of years, he would have called you crazy. But there is a law now doing exactly that, and people don't just accept it on a pragmatic level; they actively support it."

Isn't that part of the dynamics of society?

"I see it as making concessions. The natural dynamic of a society should be towards more democracy, more freedom of speech. Now it is going the other way. Of course respecting someone else's religion is an ideal too. But the traditional European approach has been to give priority to freedom of expression over respect for someone else's religion. The fact that is changing is not because Europeans have become more religious, but because they are afraid of a conflict with the Muslim minority."

You don't see it as respect for the other?
"It is a sign of respect if you take people's convictions seriously and you recognise that is not obvious for different cultures to integrate. Europa has to choose for a more restrictive immigration policy. It also needs to make a more realistic assessment of how open European culture can be towards other cultures. Europe today lacks large, metaphysical ideals, self-confidence and a vision for the future. When an insecure, malleable, relativistic culture meets a culture that is anchored, confident and strengthened by common doctrines, it is generally the former that changes to suit the latter."