Sarkozy, The Cockeyed Optimist

Oh yeah--this will work:

President Nicholas Sarkozy of France has an idea: to establish a bloc of Mediterranean countries that will function within a single framework, like the European Union, a kind of "Europe without Europeans." In this way, Sarkozy assumes, Europe will be able to build up a defense system for itself against Muslim immigrants and, above all, to sideline an ambitious country like Turkey from its midst.

...As defined by Sarkozy, there will be 15 countries in Mediterranean bloc, seven of them Muslim - Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco - and eight of them, among them Israel, non-Arab. This is a bloc that will in effect ensure the European definition of "correct Islam," not the kind that prevails in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states, and not Iranian, Pakistani or Malaysian Islam. France, of course, has no problem maintaining extensive trade relations with those countries, but when it comes to proximity to Europe, it is better to keep this Islam at arm's length.

The non-Arab countries, besides Israel, would be: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

Seven Muslim countries and eight non-Arab countries? The 7 Muslim countries have the other 8 out-numbered.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Mediterranean Bloc and Sarkozy.