My argument was straightforward. The western world is going out of business because it's given up having babies. The 20th century welfare state, with its hitherto unknown concepts such as spending a third of your adult lifetime in "retirement", is premised on the basis that there will be enough new citizens to support the old. But there won't be - so Europe decided to import the babies it couldn't be bothered having itself.And, according to Wikipedia, because of spiraling birth rates, there are so many more babies to import:
Globally, Muslims have the highest fertility rate, an average of 3.1 children per woman—well above replacement level (2.1) due to young age of Muslims (median age of 23) compared to other religious groups.[4] Christians are second, at 2.7 children per woman.[5] Hindu fertility (2.4) is similar to the global average (2.5).[6] Worldwide, Jewish fertility (2.3 children per woman) also is above replacement level.[7] All the other groups have fertility levels too low to sustain their populations and would require converts to grow or maintain their size: indigenous and tribal religions (1.8 children per woman), other religions (1.7), the unaffiliated (1.7) and Buddhists (1.6).[3]
Islam is the fastest growing religion all over the world,[8] due primarily to the young age and high fertility rate of Muslims.[9][10] According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, published in 2001, the fastest-growing branch of Islam is Ahmadiyya.[11] It is often reported from other various sources in 2010, including the German domestic intelligence service, that Salafism is the fastest-growing Islamic movement in the world.[As for Europe in particular:
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Europe.[42][43] According to the Pew Research Center, the Muslim population in Europe (excluding Turkey) was about 30 million in 1990, 44 million in 2010 and is expected to increase to 58 million by 2030; the Muslim share of the population increased from 4.1% in 1990 to 6% in 2010 and will continue to increase over the next 40 years, reaching 10% in 2050.[3][26] There were approximately 19 million Muslims in the European Union in 2010 or about (3.8%).[44]
Data for the rates of growth of Islam in Europe reveal that the growing number of Muslims is due primarily to immigration and higher birth rates.[45] Muslim women today have an average of 2.2 children compared to an estimated average of 1.5 children for non-Muslim women in Europe.[3] While the birth rate for Muslims in Europe is expected to decline over the next two decades, it will remain slightly higher than in the non-Muslim population,[3] except for Dutch-Turks, who have a lower birthrate (1.7) than the native Dutch population (1.8).[46][47]
Based on the current growth rate of Islam in Europe, in 2030, Muslims are projected to make up more than 10% of the total population in 10 European countries: Kosovo (93.5%), Albania (83.2%), Bosnia-Herzegovina (42.7%), Republic of Macedonia (40.3%), Montenegro (21.5%), Bulgaria (15.7%), Russia (14.4%), Georgia (11.5%), France (10.3%) and Belgium (10.2%).[26] There are around 100,000 Muslim converts in the UK.[48][49] France has seen conversions to the Islamic faith double in the past quarter century. In France there are an estimated 100,000 Muslim converts, compared with about 50,000 in 1986.[50]One consequence of this current growth rate--and it's one that should have been easy to foresee: the rising rate of Jews fleeing a continent that, once again, is becoming more and more of a nightmare.
There's one thing, however, that not even Steyn could have predicted, and it rather negates the title of his book. At this stage, in the eighth year of Obama's term, America does not stand alone. In fact, it hardly stands at all. Instead, it fudges and equivocates and indulges in suicidal fantasies about the true nature of Islam/jihad/sharia. And, terrifyingly for Israel and its supporters, Obama has manifested a bizarre man-crush for Iran's Ayatollah, a leader who has been given free reign by a pusillanimous, submissive, appeasing America to pursue his dreams of hegemony and genocide.
"America Alone"? As if. And if only.
Update: A fitting "Song of the Week"--REM's jaunty apocalypse tune.
Update: Lest I left the impression that America Alone wasn't prescient enough, it must be pointed out Steyn himself provided the corrective in his book After America, published in 2011. As an example of his twigging to the new reality, here he in the later tome weighing in on Barack Obama and his narcissistic "empathy":
As for feelings in general, Obama himself is the perfect emblem of the Age of Empathy. Unlike the hard-faced Bush regime, he "cared." After all, he told us so. Asked what he's looking for in a Supreme Court justice, he gave the correct answer: "The depth and breadth of one's empathy." In a TV infomercial a few days before his election, Obama declared that his "fundamental belief" was that "I am my brother's keeper."
Hmm. Back in Kenya, his brother lives in a shock on 12 bucks a year. If Barack is his brother's keeper, why can't he shove a sawbuck and a couple of singles in a envelope and double the guy's income? Ah, well: When Barack Obama claims that "I am my brother's keeper, " what he means is that the government should be his brother's keeper. Aside from that, his only religious belief seems to be in his own divinity:
"Do you believe in sin" Cathleen Falsani, the religion correspondent of the Chicago Sun-Times, asked then Senator Obama.
"Yes," he replied.
"What is sin?"
"Being out of alignment with my values."
That's one convenient religion. Obama worships at his own personal altar at the First Church of Himself. Unlike [Bill] Clinton, he can't feel your pain, but his very presence is your gain--or as he put it in his video address to the German people on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: "Few would have foreseen on that day that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent."
Tear down the wall...so they can get a better look at me!!! ...Timeless words, no?
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