The Arab Spring as well as the terrorism rampant in a number of areas in the world has brought the issue of Europe's military structure to the forefront. Gatestone Institute has been evaluating the situation in Europe including the proposal by Germany's Minister of Defense Thomas de Maiziere to have citizens with dual citizenship serve in Germany. According to the Institute, ever since Germany lifted its mandatory military service requirement, the nation's military has had difficulty filling their 180,000 soldier military. German have instead begun focusing on the 3.5 million Turks residing in Germany and have stated that they wanted to establish a multi-cultural military. However, Ankara has supposedly rejected Minister Maiziere's proposal that Turks who join the military in Germany be considered as having fulfilled their requirement in Turkey.
A MILITARY COMMITMENT ISSUE
France, which does not have a mandatory military requirement, has a military of 220,000 soldiers, 15 percent of which are Muslims. However, supposedly there is a commitment issue with the majority of North African Muslims. Because they do not consider themselves to be French they lack the drive to die for their countries and instead more consider it to be a job. In Austria, where Muslims comprise three percent of the military, three soldiers refused to greet the flag, claiming is was against their religion. Meanwhile, in Holland the concern of radicalism within the military has begun to surface.
