The Pew Research Center has published the results of fascinating polls conducted in a variety of European states about attitudes toward refugees. The issue has become quite contentious since the recent influx of Syrian refugees and the terrorist attacks in different European countries. But the range of suspicion is quite dramatic, with the most hostility identified in eastern and southern Europe. Interestingly, some of those countries with great suspicion were under the control of Muslims at different points in their history. Spain was part of the initial spread of Islam with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 until 1492. Sicily was under Muslim control from the establishment of the Emirate of Sicily in 965 until the Norman conquest in 1072. And the territory of present-day present-day Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Hungary were under Ottoman control until the the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. It would be interesting to be able to determine how much those histories influence contemporary attitudes, but I have no idea how something like that would be measured.
The Turkish government is purging military officers, police, soldiers, and teachers and university deans, claiming that they are accomplices of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric in exile in the United States. The total number of people who have been arrested or removed from office is simply staggering. The numbers indicate that President Erdogan is moving fast and hard to consolidate his control over the state after the attempted coup. It appears as if Turkish democracy is going to be severely tested in the upcoming weeks and months.
2016 is on course to shatter the record for the warmest year since ….. 2015. Last year was a record and the first six months of 2016 have been the hottest months since records started being kept in 1880. According to National Public Radio: “this year has been almost two degrees warmer than what people experienced in the 20th Century.” Scientists believe that the temperatures are due to human activity and not to the very dramatic el Niño of 2016. In fact, since el Niño is disappearing, 2017 might actually be a little cooler.
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