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rfmcdonaldNearly two years ago, Pearsall Helms pointed out in the essay of this post's title that many of the prognosticators like Mark Steyn who predict the imminent Islamization of Europe into a so-called "Eurabia" based on the spectacularly dodgy ignorance and misreading of demographic statistics seem to want this grim dystopic vision to come about.
Later in the post, Helms and commenters suggest that these people might want Europeans to suffer horrendous for their ideological impurities and historical sins. I've recently discovered that, earlier this year, British journalist Johann Hari managed to smuggle himself onto a National Review cruise and write up his experiences for The New Republic. It looks like Helms et al were right.
As an addendum, it's worth noting that in the America of a century ago, Roman Catholics like Buckley and Jews like Podhoretz would have been suspected by many as being agents of (Anglo-Saxon and Protestant) America's doom. (Canada, too, of course, as elsewhere in the Anglophone world.) Does the ability of members of those once-suspect demographics to propagate borderline-racist slanders and ethnic-minority-conspiracy theories show just how thoroughly those denominations have been accepted as pure laine among Anglophones?
There is a vein of current right-wing thought that believes that Europe is so decadent that it is on the verge of handing over the continent to sharia and that fifty years hence all that blonde hair in Sweden will be covered in hijab. To this end I find that many of these American 'conservatives' are actively wishing for some kind of terrible collapse in Europe, into communal war or economic destitution or whatever. Why? I suppose that it's their own childish posturing reaction to the childish posturing of elements of the European left that cheerlead on the possibility of American military defeat/economic collapse. It's ridiculous. Most Americans (and the overwhelming majority of conservative ideologues) are descended from European immigrants, and why these people want their ancestral lands to suffer is simply beyond me.
Later in the post, Helms and commenters suggest that these people might want Europeans to suffer horrendous for their ideological impurities and historical sins. I've recently discovered that, earlier this year, British journalist Johann Hari managed to smuggle himself onto a National Review cruise and write up his experiences for The New Republic. It looks like Helms et al were right.
I am standing waist-deep in the Pacific Ocean, indulging in the polite chit-chat beloved by vacationing Americans. A sweet elderly lady from Los Angeles is sitting on the rocks nearby, telling me dreamily about her son. "Is he your only child?" I ask. "Yes," she answers. "Do you have a child back in England?" she asks me. No, I say. Her face darkens. "You'd better start," she says. "The Muslims are breeding. Soon, they'll have the whole of Europe."
[. . .]
The conversation ebbs back to friendly chit-chat. So, you're a European, one of the Park Avenue ladies says, before offering witty commentaries on the cities she's visited. Her companion adds, "I went to Paris, and it was so lovely." Her face darkens: "But then you think--it's surrounded by Muslims." The first lady nods: "They're out there, and they're coming." Emboldened, the bearded Floridian wags a finger and says, "Down the line, we're not going to bail out the French again." He mimes picking up a phone and shouts into it, "I can't hear you, Jacques! What's that? The Muslims are doing what to you? I can't hear you!"
[. . .]
The table nods solemnly before marching onward to Topic A: the billion-strong swarm of Muslims who are poised to take over the world. The idea that Europe is being "taken over" is the unifying theme of this cruise. Some people go on singles' cruises, some on ballroom-dancing cruises. This is the Muslims Are Coming cruise. Everyone thinks it. Everyone knows it. And the man most responsible for this insight is sitting only a few tables down: Mark Steyn. He is wearing sunglasses on top of his head and a bright shirt. Steyn's thesis in his new book, America Alone, is simple: The "European races"--i.e., white people--"are too self-absorbed to breed," but the Muslims are multiplying quickly. The inevitable result will be "large-scale evacuation operations circa 2015" as Europe is ceded to Al Qaeda and "Greater France remorselessly evolve[s] into Greater Bosnia." He offers a light smearing of dubious demographic figures--he needs to turn 20 million European Muslims into more than 150 million in nine years, which is a lot of humping--to "prove" his case.
But facts, figures, and doubt are not on the itinerary of this cruise. With one or two exceptions, the passengers discuss "the Muslims" as a homogenous, sharia-seeking block--already with near-total control of Europe. Over the week, I am asked nine times--I counted--when I am fleeing Europe's encroaching Muslim population for the safety of the United States.
At one of the seminars, a panelist says anti-Americanism comes from both directions in a grasping pincer movement--"The Muslims condemn us for being decadent; the Europeans condemn us for not being decadent enough." Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz's wife, yells, "The Muslims are right, the Europeans are wrong!" And, instantly, Jay Nordlinger, National Review's managing editor and the panel's chair, says, "I'm afraid a lot of the Europeans are Muslim, Midge." The audience cheers. Somebody shouts, "You tell 'em, Jay!"
As an addendum, it's worth noting that in the America of a century ago, Roman Catholics like Buckley and Jews like Podhoretz would have been suspected by many as being agents of (Anglo-Saxon and Protestant) America's doom. (Canada, too, of course, as elsewhere in the Anglophone world.) Does the ability of members of those once-suspect demographics to propagate borderline-racist slanders and ethnic-minority-conspiracy theories show just how thoroughly those denominations have been accepted as pure laine among Anglophones?
