But none of this affects the basic point of my post, which is that U.S. Islamophobes are getting in bed with some very unsavory people. If you concede that Fallaci and Phillips are guilty of “bigotry and Islamophobia,” isn’t this unquestionably more true of Dewinter and Wilders? If we are genuinely concerned to staunch the spread of radical Islam and defend “liberal values” in Europe, isn’t making common cause with bigots the worst possible way to do so? Making Wilders the face of the movement simply sends the message that it is not radical Islam but Islam as such that we see as the enemy, and seems like a surefire way to alienate the very people that we want to win over.

My point is not that it’s morally impermissible to be concerned about integration of Muslims in Europe, but that those who are so concerned should be very careful about who they get into bed with. A disconcerting number of prominent figures have either embraced the European neo-fascist right, or at least engaged in apologetics for them. (See Charles Johnson for more info on this.)

So as always I think that people who consider themselves defenders of “liberal values” should be wary of picking allies whose primary motivation is hatred of Muslims rather than any particular interest in liberal values as such. E.g. Wilders, who has been portrayed by his apologists as a “free speech defender” despite the fact that he wants to ban the Koran.

While U.S. neofascists are clearly anti-semitic, and while their numbers are increasing, they remain a tiny percentage of the U.S. population. The fact is that most non-Jewish Islamophobes in the U.S. are philo-semites — that is, they support Israel and do not hate Jews. The overwhelming majority of American Christians are pro-Jewish and pro-Israel, and this is especially true of especially of Christians who are right wingers.

I am going to say one more time that it is quite possible to accept members of other “communities” (racial, ethnic or religious) as equals while at the same time wanting to maintain the cultural identity of one’s homeland. I don’t support the Zionist cause in Palestine because I believe it was wrong to deprive the Palestinians of land they had occupied for centuries. But do the Jews deserve a homeland, a place in which they can preserve and maintain their cultural heritage? I believe they do. In a world of perfect justice, that homeland would have been established in Austria or Bavaria after World War II. The victorious Allies should have forced Germany to absorb the population of one of these regions, and then turned the land over the Jews. I say this even though one of my grandfathers was a native of Bavaria.

Possibly the Jews would have found occupying Bavaria or Austria distasteful. I would then have offered them the state of Nevada as a place to settle in, just as the Mormons have Utah. I strongly believe the Jews deserve a homeland; I just don’t think they deserved Palestine because they once lived there. After 1,300 years of occupancy the Arabs were entitled to stay on what had become their land.

Similarly, I think the peoples of Western Europe and America have a right to maintain the cultural integrity of the lands they have occupied for centuries. While it is clearly wrong to discriminate against citizens or resident aliens of any faith or ethnicity, there is nothing inherently wrong in setting limits to immigration. While I do not believe that U.S. courts would allow policies such as Switzerland has just enacted, or that France has had for decades, I fail to see why Western countries should accept Islamization without limit. Muslim lands are immensely large, and permit the full expression of Islamic culture. Just as Westerners resident in Islamic lands must accept certain limits on their behavior, so Muslims who settle in the West should respect the culture of their surroundings. If they find themselves, for whatever reasons, unable to do so, then they should return to a Muslim land.

“The culture of a people is the blood of its being,” Herder said. Every people, every culture has a right to maintain itself, as opposed to giving way to political correctness and the demands of others who assert overriding claims for their own culture. And a person can believe this without being an Islamophobe or an anti-semite.