Posted on 11/11/2006 6:54:31 AM PST by Mount Athos
In his compelling new book, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It, conservative commentator extraordinaire Mark Steyn analyzes the current state of the “clash of civilizations” (in Samuel P. Huntington’s much-used phrase) between Islam and the West. Steyn focuses on the demographic, cultural, and political forces that are rapidly moving Europe towards an Islamified future, and the United States towards a lonely position as the only western country with the size and strength to withstand the Islamic onslaught.
It is a stark and sobering vision. Steyn’s writing, as the readers of his columns have come to expect, is informed, witty, and full of insight. I highly recommend America Alone.
Unfortunately, like so many other conservative commentators who take a hard line in the present “war on terror,” Steyn does not come out and say what he really means – which is that Islam itself is the enemy. Islam is the world’s second largest religion, and claims to be growing faster than Christianity, Hinduism, or Buddhism.
But Islam also is a totalitarian political ideology, akin to communism, that is fundamentally inconsistent with Western understandings of individual freedom, sexual equality, material prosperity, and representative government, not to mention our Judeo-Christian heritage. Since 9/11, just five short years ago, the conflict between the West and Islam (especially in Europe) has become much more pronounced, and much more violent.
Granted, most Muslims are not terrorists. Nevertheless, it is clear that many Muslims, including some portion of those living in the West, sympathize with terrorists and support the global jihad. As Robert Spencer, Andrew Bostom, David Yerushalmi, and many others have explained, the jihadist impulse is found throughout Islamic theology, history, and culture.
Islam divides the world into the House of Islam (dar al-Islam), where Islamic law (sharia) reigns supreme, and the House of War (dar al-harb), where sharia does not yet prevail. Muslims are enjoined by Allah and Muhammad to wage war upon the House of War until it is brought within the House of Islam. This religious-political project – and not the P.C. troika of poverty, tyranny, and discrimination – is the root of jihad. (For an excellent introduction to the theology and history of Islam, see here.)
It should not be surprising, then, as Steyn emphasized in a recent column, that the vast majority of Muslims worldwide feel primary loyalty to their religion (“Pan-Islamism”), instead of to the particular nations in which they live. For example, according to a recent poll (cited by Steyn), only 8 percent of Muslims living in Great Britain consider themselves British first, whereas 81 percent consider themselves Muslim first. Given the stark differences between what it means to be British and what it means to be Muslim, these poll results portend a disastrous future for the British nation. Indeed, given the gulf that exists between Western culture and Islamic culture, the growing size and influence of the Muslim world portends a disastrous future for us all.
The main focus of Steyn’s book is on the underlying demographic trends, including low native birth rates and rising Muslim immigration, that are steadily transforming Europe into an Islamic stronghold (what Bat Ye’or calls “Eurabia”). In Steyn’s view,
“demography doesn’t explain everything, but it accounts for a good 90 percent.”
Steyn emphasizes that, with birth rates among native Europeans well below “replacement level” (2.1 children per woman), the Western populations in these countries will shrink with each new generation. At the same time, millions of Muslims are moving into Europe (naively welcomed by the existing governments as a source of labor to maintain their lavish welfare states), and are having many more children than their neighbors. Steyn reports that Western women in Europe have an average of 1.4 children, whereas Muslim women have an average of 3.5 children. The result is a “baby boom” among Muslims that, within our lifetimes, will completely change the European countries in which they live. Steyn’s analysis (though not original) strikes me as right on the mark (no pun intended).
Yet after spending page after page highlighting the demographic disaster that awaits Europe (and to a much lesser extent the United States), Steyn fails to state the logical conclusion, which is that Muslim immigration must be stopped. Period.
If one believes, as Steyn clearly does (with strong support from the evidence), that Muslims as a group not only are not assimilating into Western culture but are actively hostile toward the very principles upon which our societies are built, then it is “suicidal” (a term frequently used by Steyn) to permit millions of Muslims to take up residence within our countries.
Of course, such a blanket policy would be unfair towards the many individual Muslims who do not share the militant worldview of their co-religionists. Nevertheless, if 80 percent of Muslims cannot be trusted to act in the best interests of the Western nations in which they live (to use the British poll numbers cited above), then the only rational policy is to exclude Muslims altogether. However, nowhere in America Alone does Steyn dare utter this obvious, if uncomfortable, truth.
The other principal focus of Steyn’s book is on the inability of contemporary multiculturalism to provide a meaningful, vigorous base on which to sustain and defend Western civilization. On the contrary, as Steyn sharply remarks,
“multiculturalism was conceived by the Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own.”
Hence, “the governing principle of multicultural society” is that “Western man demonstrates his cultural sensitivity by pre-emptively surrendering.” This already is happening in Europe, which Steyn thoroughly documents. But it even is happening in the United States – see the craven response by our political and media establishment to last year’s Cartoon Intifada, and the continued refusal by our law enforcement agencies to engage in “racial profiling” as part of a sensible anti-terrorism strategy. Steyn surely is correct that multiculturalism, and its philosophical twin internationalism, cannot provide the ideological meat needed to maintain a healthy body politic.
What can? Steyn doesn’t really say (a weakness in his analysis), although he strongly suggests that we need to take greater pride in our Anglo-American traditions and show greater respect for the Christian religion. Indeed, in the context of our conflict with Islam, it is difficult to conceive of anything less than a full-blown resurgence of American and European nationalism being sufficient to hold off the Islamification (or dhimmification) of much of the West.
With any significant resurgence of nationalism, however, will come, inevitably, ethnic and religious chauvinism. While such chauvinism does not have to devolve into murderous fascism, it will result in a less tolerant and accommodating attitude towards foreigners. For many Americans and Europeans, schooled for decades in the self-denying pieties of multiculturalism, this will be seen as something very bad, worse even than Islamic domination.
But ethnic and religious chauvinism is at the heart of the “civilizational confidence” that Steyn rightly ascribes to the Muslim world. Recall the Muslim protesters in London last year boldly holding signs that read “Behead Those Who Insult Islam” and “Europe You Will Pay” (all because of a few “blasphemous” cartoons in a Dutch newspaper). Without a similar sense of “civilizational confidence,” the West – including the United States – will be unable to preserve its distinctive way of life. It’s as simple as that.
After spending nearly 200 pages describing the dire threat to the West posed by Islam, Steyn begins the final chapter of America Alone by assuring his readers that his book
“isn’t an argument for more war, more bombing, or more killing, but for more will.”
This statement is either naïve or disingenuous. Because Steyn is a very smart fellow, I opt for the latter interpretation. After all, Steyn then goes on to recount his favorite anecdote about a British general in colonial India who, when faced with the traditional Hindu practice of “suttee” – the burning of widows on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands – told his Indian subjects:
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”
For Steyn, this is the quintessential example of Western “will” that we need to emulate today. But if this isn’t a call for more killing in the service of Western values, I don’t know what it is.
Whether we like it or not, large parts of the Islamic world have declared war on the West. Because Muslim countries, to date, have lacked the military and economic capability to wage conventional warfare against us, they have engaged in vicious acts of terrorism designed to intimidate and undermine Western society. They may soon be in position, through developments in Iran and, perhaps, Pakistan, to commit acts of nuclear blackmail or actual nuclear warfare. (And just imagine if, a few decades from now, a Muslim majority took control of France or England’s nuclear arsenal, with the capability to destroy large parts of the United States.) The West can either submit to this violence and intimidation, or we can fight back.
But what does “fighting back” mean? On this vital question, Steyn’s book, quite frankly, is disappointing. Steyn offers an ambitious 10-point list of options, but he does not explain what they would entail in practice.
Steyn’s list includes:
(1) supporting women’s rights in the Muslim world;
(2) “roll[ing] back Wahhabi, Iranian, and other ideological exports that have radicalized Muslims on every continent”;
(3) supporting economic and political liberty in the Muslim world;
(4) ensuring that Muslim nations that persecute non-Muslims are “denied international legitimacy and excluded and marginalized in international bodies”;
(5) “throttl[ing] the funding of mosques, madrassas, think tanks, and other activities in America and elsewhere by Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others”;
(6) creating a “civil corps” for “countering Islamism on the ideological front”;
(7) “marginaliz[ing] and euthaniz[ing]” the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, and similar “transnational organizations”;
(8) “transform[ing]” our domestic energy industry to reduce America’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil;
(9) “end[ing] the Iranian regime”; and
(10) “strik[ing] militarily when the opportunity presents itself.”
Steyn’s list leaves many questions unanswered. Consider options 1 and 3. How are we supposed to promote freedom and equality in the Muslim world? What political, economic, and military policies should we pursue to achieve these ends? And why would these policies be any more successful in the future than they have been in the past? Steyn doesn’t say.
Or consider option 6, Steyn’s call for the creation of a “civil corps.” This sounds an awful lot like the Peace Corps, only with an emphasis on ideological rather than economic development in the Third World. How would this work exactly? What ideology would we be exporting? Christianity? Capitalism? Secular humanism? Again, Steyn does not say.
Or consider option 8. How are we to achieve energy independence? Through higher taxes? more regulations? the nationalization of the energy industry? Steyn offers no blueprint for action in this important area (which should be a much easier nut to crack than “reforming” the Middle East). And so on.
I am not suggesting that Steyn’s list of options is wrong, only that it needs much more explanation and justification than he offers in America Alone. Of course, there is only so much one can do in one highly readable book.
My most serious criticism of Steyn, however, is that he refuses to acknowledge the dramatic implications of his own analysis. Take another look at items 2, 5, 9, and 10, on Steyn’s list of options. Together these would amount to a declaration of war against Islam. Obviously, the Muslim world will not take kindly to our “throttling” their funding of Islamic institutions in the United States and Europe, let alone our “rolling back” such institutions in other parts of the world. Nor will the Muslim world perceive our “ending” the Iranian regime or our “opportunistic” use of military power against other Muslim targets in benign terms.
We can be sure that any escalation of this conflict by the West (however necessary for our own security) will be met with an intensification of the global jihad.
Thus, contrary to Steyn’s earlier denial, his book plainly is “an argument for more war, more bombing, [and] more killing.” Only Steyn won’t admit it, probably because he wants to retain some “mainstream” credibility. This may be an understandable concern for a professional commentator, but it undermines the power and coherence of his book.
Tragically, unless the Muslim world suddenly reforms itself – an unlikely prospect given the nature of Islam – I am afraid that civilizational war is where we are headed in the coming decades, as the Muslim world gains even greater strength and confidence. While Mark Steyn’s America Alone helps open our eyes to certain aspects of this conflict, it does little to prepare us for the full scope of what lies ahead. For if the West decides to fight this war, rather than accept Islamic domination as the price of peace (an open question), the bombing and killing are going to be on a scale that makes the current war on terror look like a preliminary skirmish.
"What "rest of the world" will be left...the West run by spineless and neutered males who only want to pacify the enemy in the name of peace? Good grief, we can't even name the enemy now (Islam, not "terror"). We had better wake up long before then."
At the point where people's comfortable, decadent western lifestyle starts to be impacted, then there will be a backlash. When one's whole reason for existence is to consume and be entertained, it's easy to ignore the wolf crouching at one's door. But when the ongoing party starts to suffer, people will sit up and take notice. Then it will get interesting...
Right, and my point is that, if left to their own devices, the northern African peoples, who will perform most of the "enslaving" of Europe*, are utterly incapable of managing a society, much less doing the kind of technical work required to design, build, and maintain nuclear weapons systems.
For that, Islam needs either high IQ caucasian converts, or high IQ caucasian dhimmis.
*Spengler, over at the Asia Times, has a different theory about the question of conquest & enslavement:
Why nations dieI.e. it could very well be that the native caucasian Europeans will do such an effective job of murdering their children in the wombs of their mothers [via chemical or surgical means], or after their children are born, or will practice sodomy so efficiently that the children are never born in the first place**, that eventually there will be no Europeans remaining for the Muslims to conquer - the Muslims will have simply entered into a ghost continent and claimed it as their own....Nonetheless, it seems clear that the Romans did not so much conquer Greece as to occupy its shell; that the Germanic tribes did not so much conquer Rome so much as to move into what remained of it; and that the Arabs did not so much conquer the Byzantine hinterland as migrate into it...
**I also believe that internet pornography has [and will have] a profound effect in the un-making of babies, to the extent that masturbation in the privacy of his home deprives a man [and to maybe a lesser extent, a woman] of the urge to procreate that he [or she] would retain otherwise.
"Past performance is no guarantee of future results."
We've never had cars, Kalashnikovs, instant global communication, air travel or nuclear weapons before the last few generations, either.
The world has become a LOT smaller in the past 150 years. And even with the technologies of long ago, Genghis Khan ruled the biggest empire in history.
Meant to say: or will practice sodomy so efficiently that the children are never created in the first place
I also believe that internet pornography has [and will have] a profound effect in the un-making of babies
Again, I probably should have said: I also believe that internet pornography has [and will have] a profound effect in the un-creating of babies
The point being that because of things like sodomy & internet pornography, the semen will never get deposited in the birth canal, hence the babies will never be created, hence even the abortionists won't been needed because there won't be any babies to murder in the first place.
Steyn fails to state the logical conclusion, which is that Muslim immigration must be stopped. Period.
But he is quite clear that the reason Europe can't stop the influx is BECAUSE of the Demographics. They litterally have not created enough kids to keep the wheels on the trains.
He also points out, at length, that this is made worse by the cradle to grave socialism that voters there expect. Stopping immigration would mean a huge cut in benefits to the coddled French and German citizens.
They have built a trap from which they can no longer escape.
I don't see where he calls Steyn a liar, per se. I just read it last weekend. He just says that Steyn doesn't carry the argument all the way to any exact conclusion.
All true, inasmuch as Stein stops short of writing a full prescription for his diagnosis. Which he does, mostly. He only gives a glimpse there at the end of what sorts of things the prescription may need to do. But yes, it stops there.
I think it was intentional. I think the book was intended to get people to more honestly think about the diagnosis first, before getting lost in the decidedlly un-PC talk like "Steyn declares war on all of Islam"-- which is exactly what all the fuss would have been about had he done so. The strength of the diagnosis would have gotten lost in the hysteria over the conclusions.
That the conclusions are obvious serves the point without having to go around on the book tour getting distracted by them. You got it, and I got it, and this reviewer got it. Steyn hits on it here and there. I was struck by a quote that really hung with me... something like: "There may indeed be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam". Slam. Dunk. Undeniable.
It also lets Mark write a second follow-up book on the topic and go on another book tour, so... there's that.
Quite so. They're in a trap. It may be that there is no fix for them. It's too late for Europe.
Hence the title: "America Alone".
We've never had cars, Kalashnikovs, instant global communication, air travel or nuclear weapons before the last few generations, either.
The same theory about technological advancement up to WWII could have been applied but we won that war. Technological advancements are used by both sides thus that in itself is negated.
The world has become a LOT smaller in the past 150 years. And even with the technologies of long ago, Genghis Khan ruled the biggest empire in history.
He still didn't rule the worldwide population.
People of higher IQ's have never, been enslaved by people of a higher IQ's.
Also, in terms of actual pragmatic and military accomplishments, the Romans accomplished far more than the Greeks.
Abortion will probably have the same effect on Islam that it has on America.
The fact is, terrorism is effective only at destablilizing states. There is no example of a state that has been stabilized by any type of terrorism without already having infrastructure in place. Simply because terrorists are so decentralized, it will be impossible for them to maintain nuclear weapons, IQ has little to do with it.
I would like to find a study indicating pornography's effect on birth rates, until then, your post is mere speculation.
And the first step is assert man's right to a moral existence consisting of rationality, egoism, independence, and individualism.
Assuming that you meant Muslims are 1.2 billion and this was a typo. :)
The idea for the first phase of the spread of the caliphate is to take Europe first. The US has been "warned" not to interfere with this. The Islamics know the can't "take over the world" all at once.
Here are the demos for Europe and Asia and Africa:
Asia 3,875
Africa 885
Europe 727
Total 5,487
Subtract China, Japan and India and the number is even lower at 2,973. You then have a ratio of almost 1:1 Muslim to European/western type democracies on the three geographically connecting continents in a decade assuming that Muslims procreate at the rate they are now.
I think you meant to say that "People of higher IQ's have never, been enslaved by people of a lower IQ".
There I might disagree with you - certainly you would want to consider e.g. the history of very high IQ Christians and Jews living as Dhimmis under the rule of rather low IQ arab muslims.
Consider e.g. the genealogy of Michael Atiyah, who was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century - Scots mother but Lebanese Christian father.
Abortion will probably have the same effect on Islam that it has on America.
Spengler, over at the Asia Times, has written a number of columns in the last year or so about the question of declining Muslim birth rates - the upshot being that a fellow like Ahmadinejad has only a few short decades within which to act, after which time his population will have aged so much that it will be incapable of embarking on an agenda of conquest.
Which is why Spengler believes that Iran is rattling the sabres at precisely this point in time.
The fact is, terrorism is effective only at destablilizing states. There is no example of a state that has been stabilized by any type of terrorism without already having infrastructure in place. Simply because terrorists are so decentralized
Again, I'm not sure what you mean here. The whole purpose of Warshawsky's piece is to point out the tautology: ISLAM IS TERRORISM.
And Islam, while not physically "centralized", in, say, the way that Roman Catholicism is centralized in Vatican City, is, nevertheless, metaphorically centralized by the Koran & the Hadith.
As for infrastructure, the infrastructure for nuclear weaponry is already in place in Britain, France, and Russia. When the Muslims, through the strength of higher birthrates, inherit [what used to be] Britain, France, and Russia, in the 2050-2100 timeframe, then, barring an advance in genetic engineering [an advance which is very likely, by the way], the Muslims will lack the IQ necessary to maintain those weapons systems, and, without maintenance, those systems will quickly degenerate into little more than toxic nuclear waste.
Again, barring an advance in genetic engineering, the Muslims will have to either recruit high IQ caucasian converts, or retain [and enslave] high IQ caucasian dhimmis, in order to design, build, and maintain those systems.
And as above, I would urge everyone to pay a visit to a most fascinating website, which chronicles in great detail the effect of abandoning a once vibrant, flourishing, hi-tech economy, and leaving it in the hands of a race of low-IQ thugs, crooks, criminals, and con-men:
The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit
"People of higher IQ's have never, been enslaved by people of a higher IQ's." - JohnFianna
Gee, where are these Stanford-Benet results posted?
And, presuming you do have the scores, does the Egyptian Captivity fit your thesis?
I think it's most definitely possible that in the right circumstances, high IQ people could be enslaved by peoples of a much lower IQ.
Consider, for instance, what has happened in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
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