The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2007

The Muslims Are Coming! America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It Mark Steyn, Regnery, 2006, hardcover, $27.95, 224 pages. R EVIEWED BY D AVID T. J ONES As its title suggests, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It is a rant. It is clever, articulate and well-argued, and often relieved by humor, albeit of the gallows variety. But it is still a rant and, as such, has its limitations. Commentator Mark Steyn’s exege- sis has several themes: • A demographic decline of unpar- alleled dimensions in the West is gen- erating unimagined problems. • The demands in Europe for social services and supporting institu- tions have created a “Eutopia” that is unsustainable, given demographic decline and the disinclination of their populations to work productively. • The challenges to European states from their unassimilated and alienated Islamic minorities are dis- torting traditional politics and will lead to the establishment of a “Eura- bia” within the lifetimes of those now being born. • There is no such thing as a “mod- erate Muslim.” Spokesmen for Islam- ic attitudes (e.g., Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) have made their hostile intentions crystal-clear. The only question is whether they will became capable of acting on them. Steyn suggests that European elites are so enamored by the multicultural myth as to be unable to distinguish between the virtues of Western soci- eties and the negatives of the existen- tial challenge from Islamism. In his view, instead of an “immigrant prob- lem,” “youth problem” or even a “ter- rorist problem,” what the West has is a “Muslim problem.” And no act of accommodation will prove sufficient to counter the intimidation already present in Europe. To cite just a few recent incidents: Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered for a study of Muslim women; the Somali-Dutch parliamen- tarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali was effectively driven into U.S. exile for her criticism J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 85 B O O K S