Evolving dangers in a complex world

Greg Sheridan, August 16, 2007
The Australian

THE Office of National Assessments recently produced a report that came up with some startling statistics. One was that if present trends continue, France will be a majority Muslim country by 2050. Most Dutch cities will be majority Muslim by that year.

If present trends continue is, of course, a big if. In this case it requires that the respective levels of French Muslim and non-Muslim fertility be maintained, and the level of Muslim immigration. It may be that as French Muslims become more affluent they have fewer children; almost certainly the levels of Muslim immigration will decline. Nonetheless, the Muslim presence throughout Europe will grow and grow.

Now, let's couple that with the remarks of Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's closest adviser and one of the most brilliant political operators in US history, on his retirement this week. Rovesaid the war on terror would "shape the new century".

Most Muslims, of course, and certainly most French Muslims, do not support terrorism. But the evidence is abundant that a substantial minority of many Muslim populations support a similar, extremist, paranoid, conspiracy-laden view of the world as do the terrorists.

Our age, I suspect, is going to be characterised by three great strategic issues: the war on terror or, if you like, the fate of Islam; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and the rise of India and China.

Each of these issues is immensely complex and each is more complicated because of the dynamic of globalisation. Moreover, it is the way these three issues interact with each other that is most difficult to understand and respond to.

Consider this potential chain of interaction ...

More: the Australian

Err, Greg, did you just gloss over the loss of France and the Netherlands and move onto the global after-effects? You might have mentioned the likely fate of the non-muslims left stranded there before you started worrying about everyone else. Or, gee, maybe how they could even stop the takeover from happening? Wouldn't that be in their interest and ours? Let me spell it out for your: P-R-O-A-C-T-I-V-E. It beats crystal-ball gazing and the liberal last-minute-Larry line of defence any day.

Nah, you'll hold onto that liberal non-discriminatory principle come hell or high water. Why? Why? Why? I don't get it. Lose your country. Allow the Islamic threat to rise. Why? I don't get it. Convenience or conviction? You don't sound very convincing Greg. Things only evolve if you fail to take preemptive action.

3 comments:

Colonel Robert Neville said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Colonel Robert Neville said...

Ya right. It's incredible that there are so many addled, deluded and spineless fools that can only muster their spindly legged wrong focussed and cheap courage at the messengers and critics, who state the obvious bankruptcy of the entirely fashionable.

That’s Leftist, degraded Liberalism, Radicalism etc. Also the PC & Left biased censorious media, phony venal Hollywood 'stars', no standards academics, decadent celebs and lazy predictable musicians etc. Oh yes, they can also to a man and woman, rouse themselves in a nanosecond to deny the harsh empirical reality of daily global Islamic terror while simultaneously apologising for being attacked!

Yep, that's current topsy turvy showbiz folks!

Abandon Skip said...

I think the quote on your blog well describes a lot of such people these days:

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions”. Albert Einstein.