President Obama and the Muslims

According to an article on the Islam in Action website, when Barack Obama took over as President of the United States, he promised that he would reach out to Muslims. More recently, he said there is a need to reach out to the moderate elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to Islam in Action, the response of a Taliban spokesman was to call Obama's efforts "illogical," since, as he said, the only solution to the problem was the exit of all foreign troops from the land.

While that may be the solution to a relatively short-term problem, there is a broader issue at hand that will not be so easily solved. In his book, America Alone (see reference information below), Mark Steyn details the shifting demographic landscape of the world. He makes three crucial points:

First, many of the highly developed nations have declining birthrates that are leading to net population losses
rather than gains. Among them are Russia and China. In the case of China, one factor has been the one-child policy instituted in 1978. Another consequence of that policy is an imbalance between the percentage of males and percentage of females, with males being the predominant gender-119 boys to every 100 girls. (page 30) Russia, which has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world-1.2 children per woman-is facing its own crisis. Approximately 70% of Russian pregnancies end in abortion. (page 27) I read somewhere-and I can't find the source-that Russia was offering parents the equivalent of $7000 American money for having a child.

The second crucial point is that Muslims are beginning to become a significant percentage of the population inseveral western nations. In fact, some major nations are depending upon immigration to fill in the gaps created by the declining fertility rates in the general population. Muslims are settling in European countries and are beginning to make their presence felt. The Islamic web website gives the percentage of Muslim in various countries across the world. Added to Muslim immigrations patterns is also the higher birthrate among Muslim people-a birthrate that will, in the future, increase the percentage of Muslims compared with the native inhabitants of the nations in which they have settled.

The third crucial point is that many Muslims do not have a loyalty to the country in which they live, but to the religion of Islam. This is not to say that every Muslim prefers their faith to their country, but that a large percentage do. The assimilation of immigrants into the culture of the host country does not seem to be working when it comes to Muslim immigrants. Not only do these immigrants refuse to assimilate; they go further and demand that the host culture assimilate to them in terms of the customs, law, etc. Steyn cites the example of British prisons have to rebuilt bathrooms because Muslim inmates complained that the toilets faced Mecca and that the prisoners had to sit sidesaddle in order to avoid facing Mecca during their bathroom times. (pages 82 and 83).

What this is all leading to is that even though Muslims form a very small percentage of the U. S. population (less than 2%), the U. S. government under President Obama and succeeding presidents is going to have to deal with a growing Muslim population with its attendant demands. President Obama would do well to get along with Muslims and recognize that Muslims will be an increasingly important factor in the life of the world.

Will it be possible to coexist peacefully with Muslims while still maintaining our Western institutions and traditions? That remains to be seen, but we cannot be blind to what the future holds.

Sources:

islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2009/03/taliban-to-obama-get-clue.html

Mark Steyn, America Alone (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2006)

www.islamicweb.com/begin/population.htm