Muslim Europe

Submitted by C.C. Courington (United States), May 11, 2004 at 21:21

I hope this article is widely read. The stealthy "Fifth Column" approach is far more likely to produce victories for Islam than the atrocities such as killing thousands in the Twin Towers, burning people alive in their vehicles, or carving off the heads of kidnap victims. The atrocities provoke more defensive responses, while immigration and reproduction provoke little response.

You commented in the paragraph about "Muslim modernization" that "For reasons no one has quite figured out . . . modernity leads to a drastic reduction in the birth rate. . ."

The relationship between "modernization" (part and parcel of prosperity) and reproduction has been well studied. Sociobiologists (E.O. Wilson) point out that in circumstances where the chances are poor that an offspring will survive to reproductive age, many offspring are produced to increase the odds that at least one will survive. Where more resources can be devoted to an individual offspring, the odds are greater that offspring will survive, so fewer are produced. Many species of fish, for example, produce thousands upon thousands of eggs per reproductive cycle, while an elephant will produce a single offspring per reproductive cycle.

Among humans, in prosperous (e.g. "modern") societies, there is greater access to food, shelter, education, and medical care, increasing the odds of survival of any particular child. In such societies, the birth rate declines. In poor societies, without such access, the birth rate increases.

Birth rate is a societal "marker" that bears watching.

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