@ Josh A Stevens
Now that Tunisia, and hopefully Libya and Egypt are moving towards a more democratic system of government (Especially Tunisia is looking like the most probable to be successful), that would be an excellent opportunity to:
1. help them develop through trade and cooperation (Something which the Muslims, have been absolute experts at for 1000 years), thus to help their people maintain a belief that democracy is a good idea (If things go badly, then the Islamic equivalent of Neo-Nazis will pop up, just like the neo-Nazis do in Greeec now);
2. to solve our energy problems;
3. get rid of nuclear power;
4. and get rid of oil dependency on dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and Iran.
How to do this? Very simple, we go to the Tunisians, the Libyans and the Egyptians and say to them: “Greetings, we Europeans wish that our support for your former oppressors could be undone, could we cooperate on a better future for all? You see, we noticed that you have a lot of sunshine, a lot of empty desert and a lot of unemployment, we in turn have a big energy problem, could we work something out?”
We actually already have the cable technology to bring electricity from the deserts of Libya under the Mediterranian to Europe! And if we could develop Concentrating Solar Power (That is, solar power used as a heat source for regular power plants) and place them in the vast deserts of North Africa (Only a tiny amount of space in total would be needed), then we’d have our energy problem solved in no time, and we’d be done with nuclear power, and cut our carbon emissions substantially, and hopefully made good friends with the Tunisians, Libyans and Egyptians.
Would be great to see an effort like that make the good parts of the history of Europe’s relationship with Islam renew our shared future: