The blogosphere is somewhat abuzz about Mark Steyn’s and Ralph Peters’ dueling columns today. One the one hand, Mr. Steyn’s article is about the direction we are heading with Muslims out-reproducing Christians, particularly in Europe. First Mark compares two women, one is Fatma An-Najar, a Muslim grandmother of 41 grandchildren who detonated herself. The second is Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Bishop of the Episcopal church in the United States. Bishop Jefferts Schori says that Episcopalians are encouraged to not have a lot of children because “we encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.” Here’s a portion of Mark’s piece that gets to the crux of his point:
To our four Jills in the jeep, let’s add one Jim, apparently back at the steering wheel in the current war: James Baker, renowned foreign policy “realist” and the man Beltway wags are currently referring to as “the acting secretary of state.” The “realists” think that “containment” and “stability” are wise strategies. In fact, they’re the absence of strategy. The fertility rate in the Gaza Strip is one of the highest on earth. If you measure the births of the Muslim world against the dearth of Bishop Kate’s Episcopalians, you have the perfect snapshot of why there is no “stability”: With every passing month, there are more Muslims and fewer Episcopalians, and the Muslims export their manpower to Europe and other depopulating outposts of the West. It’s the intersection of demography and Islamism that makes time a luxury we can’t afford.
Ralph Peters, however, disagree whole heartedly with Mark’s argument that continuing trends will cause us to someday have Eurabia replacing Europe. Mr. Peters argues that Europeans are just as good at genocide today as they have been in centuries past, and that they will, Mr. Peters is sure of this, resort to genocide once again if pushed. Take a look at this part of Mr. Peters’ article:
The endangered species isn’t the “peace loving” European lolling in his or her welfare state, but the continent’s Muslims immigrants – and their multi-generation descendents – who were foolish enough to imagine that Europeans would share their toys.
In fact, Muslims are hardly welcome to pick up the trash on Europe’s playgrounds.
Don’t let Europe’s current round of playing pacifist dress-up fool you: This is the continent that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing, the happy-go-lucky slice of humanity that brought us such recent hits as the Holocaust and Srebrenica.
THE historical patterns are clear: When Europeans feel sufficiently threatened – even when the threat’s concocted nonsense – they don’t just react, they over-react with stunning ferocity. One of their more-humane (and frequently employed) techniques has been ethnic cleansing.
And Europeans won’t even need to re-write “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” with an Islamist theme – real Muslims zealots provide Europe’s bigots with all the propaganda they need. Al Qaeda and its wannabe fans are the worst thing that could have happened to Europe’s Muslims. Europe hasn’t broken free of its historical addictions – we’re going to see Europe’s history reprised on meth.
Both possible futures are so depressing. I’ll take what’s behind curtain number three, Monty.
Be sure to read Mark Steyn response to Ralph’s article at Power Line.
Update: On a related note, Michael Goodwin writes about the changing face of Palestinian suicide bombers.
It was only a matter of time. Depraved Palestinians first sent young adult men wearing explosives to blow themselves up on Israeli buses and in pizza parlors. Then came the phenomenon of young women doing the same. Now a grandmother has chosen this fiendish way of death.
Fatma Omar An-Najar was a mother of nine and grandmother of more than 30. Her suicide in the Gaza Strip lightly injured three Israeli soldiers, so she failed to take “infidels” with her. But that is of little comfort. The use of a grandmother means more horror is coming.
With teenagers as young as 16 already blowing themselves up, children are next in line to become “martyrs.”
Young Palestinian children are brainwashed to love and to hope for Shahada, death for Allah. It’s scary as hell to think that these folks are out breeding almost everyone else on earth.
