A new video on YouTube is going viral innocently titled “Muslim Demographics”. It was put on YouTube by the appropriately named FriendofMuslim but once you view its “facts” and biased message you’ll see this poster is no friend of Muslims. It has been viewed over 3.9m times at writing, has been reviewed 4,109 times and given an average 4 star rating, it is the #6 most watched Non-Profits and Activism category video, it has been tagged as a favorite 4,500 times, the poster has no other videos on YouTube and is otherwise annonymous. Comments on the video on YouTube have been disabled by the owner. According to YouTube stats the video was uploaded from an IP address Israel. 200,000 people watched this video in the time it took me to write this article.
Seeming to be about religion and the importance of Christianity the video is nothing more than a thinly veiled message that Muslims are out to destroy our fabric and pose a global threat to our very existence. When you hear Muslim of course they want you to hear “Islam” and the video regularly uses both terms. The author of the video would have us do two things- produce more christian babies and spread the word of the gospel. One has to wonder who is behind this video.
I receceived a link to this video from a friend. I’m not sure what his purpose was in sending it to me. The statistics offered in the video are interesting and I made no attempt to corroborate or discredit them as facts. By themselves are nothing more than numbers unless one wants to consider how to reverse the trends highlighted- a place I don’t want to go.
“Islam will overwhelm Christendom unless Christians recognize the demographic realities, begin reproducing again, and share the gospel with Muslims”
The 7.5 minute video wants us to believe that for a culture to continue to maintain itself for more than 25 years there must be a 2.11 children per family birth rate. (The implications of gay marriage are here but not mentioned). According to their facts it is “impossible to reverse a trend of a 1.3 birthrate within less than 80-100 years” thereby dooming that culture. France has the highest European birthrate at 1.8 with a European average of 1.38.
“In a matter of years Europe as we know it will cease to exist”.
Who is behind the video
I can’t tell but when looking at the sites that have popularized the video by linking to it but the top 2 are a Russian and a Polish site. The fourth listed referrer site is called Dvorak Uncensored and claims to be a blog site by John C Dvorak of PC Magazine. A quick search of the site comes up with several articles about religion and the Demise of Christianity in America.
The content seems to be a lot like some of the claims made by Mark Steyn. Steyn is a frequent guest of Limbaugh and Hewitt and writes for the National Review. He is known for having said:
“I’m not a racist, only a culturist. I believe Western culture—rule of law, universal suffrage, etc.—is preferable to Arab culture…”
I find it no coincidence that Steyn was awarded the 2006 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism. Roger Ailes of Fox News presented the prize, which included a $20,000 check from an endowment founded by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
Immigration
But the “problem” is not limited to low birthrates according to the video. “Immigration poses a far greater threat”. To be specific, Islamic immigration, which accounts for “90% of Europe’s population growth since 1990″. France has an birthrate of 1.8 versus 8.1 Muslim birthrate. In Southern France “there are now more mosques than churches”. In Paris “45% of people under the age of 20 are Muslim”. “In 39 years”, the video predicts, “France will become a Muslim Nation”. By 2025 1/3 of all children born in Europe will be born into Muslim families.
The video goes on to describe the “problem” in the UK where there are apparently now over 1,000 mosques “many of them former churches”. In Russia the population is 20% Muslim and 40% of the Russian Army will be Muslim in a “just a few short years”. The German Federal Statistics Office is quoted as saying Germany will become a Muslim State by 2050. There are 52m Muslims in Europe “and that is expected to double in the next 20 years”.
The video shows its ignorance by itself ignoring one of the main reasons Muslims emigrate- to make a new life for themselves and to escape the rigidity of Islam as practiced in their countries.
Closer to Home
And then the video hits closer to home- Canada and the USA.
Canada has a 1.6 fertility rate and Islam is Canada’s fast growing religion. Canada’s population increased by 1.6m between 2001 and 2006, 1.2 came from immigration.
In America the video states our fertility rate is 1.6 but that the “influx of people from the Latino nations brings the US birthrate up to 2.11, the bare minimum required to sustain a culture”. The video does not tell us what that mixed American-Lation culture will be but its the first time I’ve heard immigration in a positive light from religious hate groups.
The population of Muslims in America has increased from 1970’s 100,000 to over 9m today, trumpets the video. They predict in 30 years that 50m Muslims will live in America. In 5-7 years “Muslim [sic] will be the dominant religion in the world”.
The video closes
“As believers we call on you to join the effort to share the gospel message with the changing world, this is a call to action”
What is so despicable of the video is that it categorizes every “Muslim” as the same. African, Middle Eastern, people from the former Soviet republics, second and third generation Americans, Indian, Pakistani- all lumped into the same basket. That’s akin to saying all Catholics are of the same mentality, temperament and culture. Or that the Jews of Ethiopia, now Somalia, have the same culture as the Jews of Israel or Manhattan. Basically all Muslim populations are the same is the pretext here.
The message is clear. Islam will overwhelm Christendom unless Christians recognize the demographic realities, begin reproducing again, and share the gospel with Muslims.
So what are we to do with this call to action? The video thankfully does not go beyond asking viewers to spread the word of god, as if our god is different or better than an Islamic god. Are they implying that we need to stop immigration, create refugee camps and round up the Muslims, force them back to “where they came from”, force birth control on Muslims? Or are we to do as Germany did and offer Turks (mainly Muslim) a bribe to go back home.
What? The word of god is now going to convert people from the Islamic faith? Its been tried for 1,000 years and failed very single time. From the Crusaders to GW Bush its been tried in different ways.
A solution to consider
Here is what we can to do as a culture, a nation and as individuals. I think President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton feel the same way.
In order to reduce and eventually eliminate any so called “threat” posed by Muslims and their Islamic religion we have to embrace these people as equal. Sure they have some ancient and different customs, some might say barbaric, but that’s using a modern western definition of what is barbaric. Not long ago this country practiced barbaric methods on slaves.
We have to understand that Muslim people living in America have a culture that they want to hold on to as much as the Italians, Greeks, Chinese or Native Americans. Their religion poses no threat- it is people within their culture that are advocates of a stricter form of their religion- Islam.
We constantly hear “guns don’t kill people- people kill people”. Well Islam does not kill people either. Like guns it’s people misusing Islam that kills people, not only in America but elsewhere. There are examples of Protestants killing Catholics and “Christians” killing Jews.
Integration
Muslims in America are trying to integrate into our young society. This nation knows a thing or two about integration. Muslims may not have yet embraced our culture but its coming- slowly. Look how long it took Italians to integrate and Russian immigrants today still cling to their language, schools and social groups.
Tolerance
We must teach Islam in schools to our children so they grow up tolerant of others and able to understand what other religions entail. How many people want their children to learn Mandarin to “get ahead in the future”. Well learning about Islam is far easier than learning Mandarin.
On April 2, 2008, the head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission issued a public letter to the editor of Maclean’s magazine. In it, Jennifer Lynch said,
“Mr. Steyn would have us believe that words, however hateful, should be given free reign. History has shown us that hateful words sometimes lead to hurtful actions that undermine freedom and have led to unspeakable crimes. That is why Canada and most other democracies have enacted legislation to place reasonable limits on the expression of hatred.”
What can you do? Take action yourself against this hatred
What you can do is click on this link, go to the YouTube page and FLAG the item as “hateful or abusive content”.
A well thought out opinion comes from nine9s who on her lunch time from work created her own video response to Mark Steyn’s theory of having more babies to preserve western civilization. I encourage you to look at it also.
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Mooney’s article contradicts itself. Why should we teach our kids islam in school and to be tolerant since he suggests there is no threat or problem?
Also, he needs to learn about Islam and there core theological and religiuos call from their own Koran, which is “to convert or kill all infidels.”
Mooney’s type (unfortunately most of lazy Americans today) is like the wild pig who gets caught in Cuba’s style of pig hunting. Over time feed a wild pig and let him get used to eating. Put up one side of a fence. Keep feeding the pig and let him eat. Put up a second side of the fence. Keep feeding him. Put up a third side. Let him keep eating. Put up the 4th enclosing side of the fence. The pig don’t even realize that he’s been caught. He won’t care either until his food is taken away. Then it’s too late. Easy and no fighting back. That’s what’s happening to America.
DM, Just ran across this article.. Thought it would be interesting to see how well Muslims are integrating into their new found homes. What should Belgium do? Embrace Islam as their new standard?
“More than a third of Moroccans in Belgium feel Muslim first, barely 7% identify with the Belgian nationality. Nevertheless, the majority is Belgian, according to a study by the King Baudouin Foundation, reports Belgian newspaper Le Soir. In collaboration with the King Baudouin Foundation, the University of Rabat questioned 400 people from the Moroccan community in Belgium.[...]
Belgian Moroccans prefer a non-mixed marriage. More than half of the respondents thinks it’s good to have somebody come from their homeland for a marriage. 62% are against a marriage of a Muslim woman with a non-Muslims. Just 45% disapprove of the reverse.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026763.php
Oh DM—Here we go again. In your misplaced righteous indignation you attack the messenger but don’t tell us what is wrong in the message. In fact you even screw up history in the typical leftist guilt trip that is completely wrong.
You state: “The word of god is now going to convert people from the Islamic faith? Its been tried for 1,000 years and failed very single time. From the Crusaders to GW Bush its been tried in different ways.” The Crusades were nothing more than Christians trying to regain Jerusalem from the Muslims who seized the city the first time in the 7th century. Note the operative word here DM—Muslim armies seized the Holy land first. Subsequent Crusades were back and forth between Muslims and Christians seizing the property from each other. No conversions from either religion were the driving factor in the wars.
I assume an innocent mistake on your part in understanding the historical aspect as you are steeped in liberal philosophy. However, accusing Bush of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity is beyond the pale. You have to know that you are seriously distorting the facts to meet your inconvenient theory. Debate the threat of Islam but do it truthfully.
From previous posts I believe I have asked you and your counterparts how on earth you can defend what is arguably the most violent religion throughout history and has extended that violence into the modern era. How do you defend a religion that deliberately subjugates women to the point of cattle and even says they are worth half as much as a man. How do you defend a religion that still stones people to death, executes homosexuals, hangs young girls by the neck until dead in town squares, openly advocates death, slavery or taxing for all non believers? How do you justify a religion that condones the murder of any non-believer? How do you condone Muslim fathers strangling and shooting their daughters in honor killings here in the U.S. and Canada? You defend these barbaric peoples and condemn your own countrymen for their fear and loathing of this religion. You need your head examined!
Your premise that not all Muslims are similar to and practice what is outlined above. You are right and your also right about the different sects of Islam. However, you miss the forest because of the tree your standing in front of. All true Muslims believe and adhere to the Quran, regardless of the sect. All believe in the establishment of the 12th Caliphate, which by its very definition requires the destruction of the world. Where are all these moderate Muslims you say exist—Why are we not hearing from them denouncing these practices of Islam. How many do you hear that protest any of the recent Fatwa’s issued against anyone questioning their values. Fatwa’s against members of the Dutch Parliament!
When you and the rest of your liberal buddies start demanding the same behavior from Muslims that you do with the rest of us- maybe I’ll listen. You have to get out of your protected environment and see the devastation that Islam’s adherents have brought to world and their own. Go find a real and oppressed group to campaign for.
Once again you blame us for intolerance of Islam and its practices and state its our responsibility to teach tolerance. B.S.! It is their responsibility to integrate into American culture and embrace our values – not the other around. They left their country of origin to come here for a reason—to get away from the oppression and violence of Islam. Multiculturism is a cop out and does not work. Any culture coming here must adhere to our values and systems.
Good site, admin.
Good site, admin.
Steyn was a guest on Limbaugh today being critical of Obama’s decision to scale back the National Day of Prayer celebration at the White House. Steyn noted that Obama is going to celebrate privately, which will entail Obama going to the press room and having the White House press corps bow before him.
This is comedy at its best. I guess if you like Stewart, which I do, then you have to laugh at Rush and Steyn as well.