TURKEY: NOT QUITE READY FOR PRIME TIME?

Europe is facing a dilemma. In addition to the massive waves of non-matriculating Muslim immigrants, the nations of Europe are now being asked to consider allowing a Muslim nation to join the EU. While Turkey has been a loyal member of NATO and an ally to Israel, is this Islamic nation ready to formally join the west? My gut instinct says no, and apparently the Austrians agree: Turkey? Most Austrians Say No. Only 10% of the Austrian population supports Turkish membership. Remember too, the Austrians are the ones who stopped the Turkish/Muslim invasion of Europe a few centuries ago.

There are many problems associated with trying to integrate Turkey in to the European Union. Not the least of which is their religion.

"We will be overrun," said Gottfried Piswanger, 49, a butcher who one afternoon last week was slicing venison amid the cheese and wine stalls in the Victor Adler Market in a working-class district of Vienna.

"We are already too full. And when they come, they do not adjust," he said.

Not only is the Muslim culture demonstrably incapable of adapting to the west, but Turkey's economy is not up to snuff compared to the EU.

Turkey's entry would turn the EU into a free-trade area as Turkey's lower wages and lower taxes caused "a race to the bottom" by undercutting Western Europe's higher standards of living and social protection programs...

Europeans are actively working to stop the accession negotiations.

Boris Blauth, a Munich illustrator who has coordinated Voice for Europe, a continentwide network of campaigners who oppose Turkish entry to the EU, believes that Europeans' reservations are based on the fear that Turkey's accession would lead to an assault on what he calls European values. These include respect for human rights, especially the equal treatment of women.

"Societies don't adopt European values and European freedoms just by being exposed to them, just by joining the EU," he said, by telephone from Munich. "In Turkey, there is still torture.

Let's hope that Europe makes the right decision.