Question

Did Europe created the problem that sit faces today? Has European racism and xenophobia led to the ongoing terror crisis on the continent? And how should the US respond? Particularly since many experts believe that our danger from terrorism is NOT from refugees (not immigrants but refugees. Please don't forget there's a difference.) from the region though there certainly is debate (the current vetting process is extraordinarily detailed and thorough).

Answer 1

Yes, it was Europe that has created the problems it faces today.

• Britain has witnessed a spike in hate crimes in the wake of the vote for "Brexit", with more than a hundred incidents of racial and xenophobic abuse.
• Pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance and equality. Four of the core principles on which the European Union was established – so much so that they even made it into one of the founding treaties. But for all the lofty aspirations outlined in the treaties, things have never quite lived up to those expectations.
• Who can forget when, in 2005, France’s banlieues – vast estates in the suburbs, divided from the cities not just by motorways, but also by race and religion – erupted in violence?
• Europe not only witnessed “growing levels of Islamophobia during the year”, attacks against Jewish people were also on the rise: “The level of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic attacks in Europe has risen yet again in 2015, after they had already reached a peak in many countries during the preceding year.”
• This isn’t the first time Europe’s self-image as a tolerant and open-minded continent has been called into question. In February 2015, Europe compared un favourably with the rest of the world in a Pew study on attacks against religious minorities.
• For a continent already dealing with the most severe migration crisis since the Second World War – with many immigrants coming from predominantly Muslim countries – the attacks brought to the surface attitudes and feelings that seem irreconcilable with the EU’s central principles

It’s not all bad news, though. In fact, in some places across the continent, the terror attacks and migration crisis actually strengthened community spirit and reinforced a sense of common identity, regardless of religion, race or origins.

US immediate reaction to the this was to not only criticize the deal but to also suggest that it would damage U.S.-UK trade, further jeopardizing the deal’s December vote in the House of Commons and undermining Prime Minister Theresa May’s already vulnerable political situation. A no-deal scenario would negatively impact several crucial U.S. political, security, and economic interests vis-à-vis the UK and Europe. Although Washington has only limited means to play a constructive role at this late point in the negotiations, the Trump administration’s muddled and hands-off approach thus far has not served it well.