The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2007

of Muslim culture; and the gay mayor of Paris was stabbed by a homosexual- hating Muslim. Such events induce the kind of fear that kept most Western media from reprinting the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that had caused such an uproar in Islamic states. Steyn concludes that passivity in response to provocation will not be regarded as societal restraint, but capitulation. Thus, there will never be a need for Muslim military con- quest of Europe; victory will come as the consequence of a thousand acts of minor accommodation, each ostensibly trivial but corporately con- clusive. Steyn ultimately turns to the United States for what hope is possible. It is not that we are unaffected, but that we remain capable of a level of innovative resistance no longer present in Europe. Our failure to act, “imperial understretch” and reluctance to spread ideals such as self-reliance and decen- tralization (rather than just exporting culture) are damaging. Although replete with anecdotes, America Alone has nary a footnote and no bibliography. Steyn seeks to browbeat readers through shrillness rather than argumentation. Demo- graphy is not destiny, regardless of Muslim birthrates, and even Steyn acknowledges that these rates will probably fall — but not before Muslims become the dominant ele- ment of many European countries. More damaging, he fails even to flag the possibility that technology will sustain productivity at levels that will permit declining and aging popula- tions to live comfortably without mas- sive immigration. One might compare Steyn with the late Oriana Fallacci, recalling her vivid volumes on the perils of rising Islamic culture in Europe. But where Fal- lacci was volcanic in her rhetoric, Steyn at least controls the temperature of his concern over the Islamic challenge. The long war against ideological/ter- rorist Islam will be fought the hardest way: on our home front. The chal- lenges will be disguised in hues of grey and will often appear trivial in their dimensions, but will still be necessary to recognize and rebuff. Retired Senior Foreign Service offi- cer David T. Jones is a frequent con- tributor to the Journal . 86 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 B O O K S