I'm reminded of something Emmanuel Todt, the French sociologist with partial Jewish-American roots who three decades ago predicted the fall of the Soviet Union with the correct reasons, and who recently predicted the fall of the USA in the next decades, wrote in the latter book. He had an argument about the correlation between the form of the ideals of egalitarianism and universalism preferred in a society, and the predominant way of inheritance in a family.

In this train of thought, he also argued that Anglo-Saxon culture feels the need to "draw a line" (until which everyone is equal, beyond which everyone is 'different'). Now in truth, this is not exclusive to Anglo-Saxons, and in some way, I sense even in this post, not to mention the stock Islamophobic comment. Here is my counter-view:

There is no such thing as a limit of Europe. There is a continuity. Should the EU (its leaders and its population) recognise this, there could arise a vision of the EU whose expansion is open-ended: bit-by-bit, if some neighbour wants to join, with time (years-decades-century) she could do so. (Maybe its name would change with time - say, Euro-Mediterranean Union.) Also, there may be further internal sub-structuring (Schengen and the Euro are already such) and regional exceptions (unless Bliar sets an example by giving back the British rebate :-) ).

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}