Great stuff overall, but I didn't get that "Little Rock, Arkansas" jab at all. Was it supposed to be a clever joke about obese southern white trash or is it more subtle than that?

Sounds like Mexicans in the US.

It is strange UK cannot control its see borders. Germany has in spite of Schengen three zones behind our common border to check foreigners suddenly appearing on their side.

Cars are checked without any given reason, not on the border, more in the interior.
They involve or pay also local population to give them tips. And taxi drivers "unknowingly" transporting foreigners got real troubles ( a nice trick to avoid traffickers with their own cars).

It's not so strange. We have no history if interior identity checks and until the mid 20th century we were able to rely on border controls and a strict immigration policy to keep out most of our problems. Of course, after the war, the new labour government decided to import a vast number of foreign workers ostensibly to help rebuild the country, but with the added bonus of depressing wages to the point where it was much easier to sell their socialist agenda - and then we subsequenty joined the EEC and started opening up our borders to all and sundry.

We have this ancient right that a man may travel unmolested within the borders of this country. It's a very ingrained right, one that lies behind nearly all of the opposition to national identity documents. It worked when the border was properly controlled. It fails now beause the border isn't controlled - because we're being forced to adopt a foreiogn method of border control that assumes long, uncontrollable stretches of remote borders where we were able to bottle-neck everyone into a few entry points with relative ease. That's why we're having so much trouble sealing our borders and pursuing the criminal element taking advantage of our current weakness. If we were allowed to function in the way we had functioned up to the early 20th century we wouldn't have this problem in the first place.

But that way was waycist, so we can't do it lest we get shouted at by anti-fascists.

The three zones behind the German border are very new - few years. It is not much discussed, but it is quite tough.

But the east of Bavaria or Saxony has no immigrants - it is easy to check non-European strangers.

Bravo.

@ Tuan Jim

I am afraid to say there was no higher or rareified inference apropos Arkansas.

I merely implied that the inhabitants of Little Rock were less than svelte based on a visit a few years ago, when I was struck by the puzzling conundrum of astonishing girths contained within thin skins.

As to the white trash you mention, I tend not to mix in such circles. Most of the astonishingly rotund friends I have in Little Rock are solidly middle class.

1979 Saudi Aramco World....

Stats for 1979 Europe!

Muslims in Europe

The Presence





Written by John Lawton
Photographed by Tor Eigeland


Islam, today, is the second largest religion in Europe; and Muslims - more than five million in 1978 - now make up 40 percent of the Common Market's foreign workforce




As a result, says Azzam, "the West has generally known Islam as an enemy and a threat."


In an effort to build new bridges of knowledge and cooperation between the Muslim world and the predominantly Christian West,



When the mass migration of foreign workers into Western Europe first began in the 1960's, most Europeans assumed that "guest workers" would stay for a few years and then take their savings home.


But as the total of foreign workers reached 12 million - nearly five percent of the EEC's total population - the problems could no longer be dismissed as temporary or minor.


The problem worsened in the 1970'. The result, particularly in urban areas, was tension. As The Economist in Britain put it: "Xenophobia in Europe is rising."



In West Berlin, for example, the Standing Conference of Jews, Christians and Muslims in Europe has warned that if Christians and Muslims do not learn to live together there could be trouble.





Some countries, certainly, have already taken steps to alleviate problems. Belgium and Austria, for example, now officially recognize Islam as a religion. But the bulk of Europe's Muslims do not live in Belgium and Austria. Of a total of 5.4 million, 1.9 million live in France, 1.5 million in West Germany, 1 million in Britain, 500,000 in Italy, 350,000 in the Benelux countries, 40,000 in Scandinavia, 25,000 in Spain and some 5,000 each in Austria, Portugal and Switzerland.







"Islam is not simply a religion in a limited sense of the word," said Khur-shid Ahmad, now Deputy Minister of Planning in Pakistan. "It is a complete way of life. It fashions the social attitude and behavior patterns of its adherents: their food, dress, marriage and family life and social relations..."


Muslim efforts to achieve legal, religious and political equality with Europeans are complicated and often bring them into conflict with established customs and laws.


Progress, nevertheless, is being made. By a special Act of Parliament on July 19, 1974, Belgium recognized Islamic law; the Common Market Commission has recommended that immigrants' political rights should be extended; and a special parliamentary committee has been set up in Britain to study such Muslim demands as allotment of government land for construction of mosques and recognition of Islamic holidays for Muslim workers.


Some Muslims in Europe, however, feel that in view of the large amounts of money they are sending home - in 1977, Pakistan's second largest source of foreign exchange - the equivalent of about $450 million. Turkey also depends heavily upon the money its workers abroad send home; the total in 1976 was $982 million, about half the value of Turkey's exports.




This article appeared on pages 3-8 of the January/February 1979 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.

See Also: INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC CONFERENCE, ISLAM—EUROPE, ISLAMIC COUNCIL OF EUROPE, MUSLIMS—EUROPE

Check the Public Affairs Digital Image Archive for January/February 1979 images.
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197901/muslims.in.europe-the.presence.htm

Not only did the Independent quote the stats of 80 million plus population in October 2007 but so did Radio 4s farming today programme,2008
I wrote to migration watch- was ignored.
Wrote to optimum population trust-they replied saying that they must use official stats.