…. Maybe the encounter with a post-Christian Europe will supply the Islam of recent immigrants with the cultural vigor that’s been missing, for centuries now, in Baghdad and Cairo and Damascus.
Maybe a kind of “Euro-Islam” is being forged that’s capable of contending with secular liberalism for converts. Maybe a Tariq Ramadan-esque figure will emerge to play the Muslim Saint Paul to the E.U.’s Roman Empire. Or maybe, as Steyn and others argue, differential birth rates alone will suffice to create a Muslim-majority Europe.
But I’m just not sure you can extrapolate that far from current trends. I think it’s reasonable to look at Europe and see decadence — demographic, cultural and otherwise. But even a decadent society can be stronger than its rivals, and capable of containing, assimilating, and outlasting them. [NYTimes.com]
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