Muslim Immigration in Europe

A fellow I went to college with 50 years ago recently reconnected with me via Facebook.com and ever since (since July 1) we have been engaged in a month long email and phone exchange covering the lost decades between us in incredible detail. We have also spent some time speculating about the future, hardly one more pessimistic than the other. For example, I am reading Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West by Chris Caldwell, a right-of-center journalist who has marshaled an impressive array of facts and statistics that strongly suggest that Islam will ultimately be dominant in Europe without firing a shot or using a suicide bomber. At the same time my old grad school chum saw a video on youtube.com that dealt with the same material. He sent it to me and I was as impressed, as the facts presented were hard, if not impossible, to refute. It concerns the coming demise of Europe as we and History have known it.
In brief, the Muslims will take over Europe by the sheer force of the many more babies they are having compared with the ‘native’ population. The last two generations of Europeans have paid heed to the idea of overpopulation; it was seen as virtuous to have fewer children than before World War ll. The Muslims, however, ignored the warnings about the population explosion, reproducing at a much higher rate (8.6 per family) than people in the West (in Europe most countries are at 1.9 down to 1.3 per family.) Demographers argue that a culture in order to sustain itself must reproduce at a rate of 2.11 kids per family. In 1945 1000,000 immigrants came to Europe to help the rebuilding of a devastated land. The thought was the workers would return to their homeland after a while, but instead a large portion of them decided to stay as the wages, opportunities, and the social welfare system was so much better than Morocco and the Middle East. This step by step ‘invasion’ of Europe is described in considerable detail by Caldwell in his well-researched book. The name of the video is Muslim Demographics. I recommend both to anyone interested in the possible consequences of thoughtless immigration. They constitute 90% of the immigrants now. By 2050 it is estimated that there will be 102,000,000 Muslims in Europe. They are gaining a foothold and they don’t assimilate, being an entity outside the EU, living in self-sustaining enclaves, preserving their culture, religion, morality, and ethnicity. German statisticians say it is too late to reverse the birth rate in Germany, and France isn’t far behind. Europe will be overwhelmed in a few decades.
These thoughts and fact-laden predictions have led me to entertain a few fantasies about the future in Europe. Just consider these possibilities: the Eiffel Tower will become where the faithful are called to prayer; Paris will be shorn of alcohol, jazz clubs, and French movies; Oktoberfest will be nothing but a memory; the Vatican will have been moved to Timbuktu and the Pope will be black and hail from Africa; Chartres,, Wells Cathedral, and St. Peter’s will be retrofitted as mosques, just like St. Sophia’s was in the 16th Century; images of the Christian trinity, Jesus, and other leading figures will be desecrated, painted over, or buried in the basements of museums; and one hesitates to guess how many great works of Western Art will bite the dust, like those Giant Buddhist sculptures did in Afghanistan several years ago that were pulverized by dynamite by the Taliban who took no regard to preserve the icons of another culture and religion. Caldwell mentions that the city of Amsterdam represents a storehouse of the art and culture of the Netherlands. Then he quotes Ayann Hirsi Ali who became a Dutch citizen and Member of Parliament. “If the citizens of Amsterdam, 60% of whom will soon be of non-Western origins, are not part of that, all of this will decay and be destroyed. When the municipality has to vote on whether funds go to preserving art or build a mosque, they may ask, ‘Why should I pay for a stupid painting.’” One trembles with fear and loathing at these possibilities.
A similar phenomenon is happening south of the equator; if it is a countervailing development I can’t say, but it could be under the right circumstances. And that is the migration of Christianity to the southern hemisphere, as it has run out of juice and clout in Northern climes. It has been dying on the vine since the close of Second World War, with eroding attendance at Sunday Mass being the main indicator of a fading religion. It has virtually disappeared from the land of its origins. It is very strong in Africa already, and growing by leaps and bounds, both the Catholic Church and Protestant sects. It is spreading in Asia too. For details of this development read the books of scholar Philip Jenkins. These new Christians could rival the Muslims in Europe in reproductive fury and numbers and they might even entertain ideas of a “crusade” to reclaim Rome and the rest of captive Europe. But problems loom: many Africans and Asians live in Shanty towns and vast slums; there is not the wealth and wherewithal that would be necessary to take back what has been lost. As in its origin, the faith of Jesus is designed for the poor.
There is no point in bemoaning these epochal transformations that are in process. It is like trying to hold back a giant boulder that is rolling down hill. And yet we must think about it. But those of us who won’t be around can merely shrug our shoulders and take our meds. And I realize Islam is a complex subject and issue, a religion with many faces and sects, and that I have simplified it to profile some facts. Plus who knows what unknown forces might change the thrust of events and change the path of the crashing rock of destiny. Or as my old college mate put it, “Perhaps Gawd will intervene.”