Plummeting birthrates among native Europeans combined with a burgeoning Muslim population on the Continent, Mark Steyn argued in America Alone, is leading to an “apocalyptic scenario.” Steyn wrote, “The U.S. government’s National Intelligence Council is predicting the EU will collapse by 2020. I think that’s rather a cautious estimate myself.”

In fact, the spread of radical Islam has started a chain reaction that will soon result in a European superpower that will smash its way to world dominance! “Throughout Europe’s history,” my father wrote two years ago, “what has helped it to overcome its division has been a unity of purpose between church and state. … But this church-state union hasn’t always been a happy marriage. Usually the two have been drawn together because of a crisis—an emergency.”

Recently, several signs have pointed to the fact that Europe is waking to the crisis. Daniel Pipes identified several of these in a recent column for the Jerusalem Post:

Europeans are visibly showing signs of impatience with creeping Shari’a. The legislation in France that prohibits hijabs from public school classrooms signals the reluctance to accept Islamic ways, as are related efforts to ban burkas, mosques and minarets. Throughout Western Europe, anti-immigrant parties are generally increasing in popularity.That resistance took a new turn last week, with two dramatic events. First, on March 22, Pope Benedict xvi himself baptized, confirmed, and gave the Eucharist to Magdi Allam, 56, a prominent Egyptian-born Muslim long living in Italy, where he is a top editor at the Corriere della Sera newspaper and a well-known author. … The ceremony converting him to the Catholic religion could not have been higher profile, occurring at a nighttime service at St. Peter’s Basilica on the eve of Easter Sunday, with exhaustive coverage from the Vatican and many other tv stations.Allam followed up his conversion with a stinging statement in which he argued that beyond “the phenomenon of Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictive.”

To read what theTrumpet.com wrote about the baptism of Allam, go here. “In attempting to galvanize and energize 1 billion Catholics,” Stratfor wrote in response to Allam’s baptism, “Benedict might also further alienate 1 billion Muslims.” This, as we have written so many times before, is leading to the Daniel 11:40 clash.

Another recent development Pipes referred to in his Post column was the release of Geert Wilders’s new film Fitna. The 15-minute film, Pipes wrote, “consists of some of the most bellicose verses of the Koran, followed by actions in accord with those verses carried out by Islamists in recent years.” He continued, “The obvious implication is that Islamists are simply acting in accord with their scriptures. In Allam’s words, Wilders also argues that ‘the root of evil is inherent’ in Islam.”

At the end of his column, Pipes wrote, “Allam and Wilders may represent the vanguard of a Christian/liberal reassertion of European values. It is too soon to predict, but these staunch individuals could provide a crucial boost for those intent on maintaining the continent’s historic identity.”

For more about Europe’s prophesied response to the spread of radical Islam, read Ron Fraser’s column, posted earlier today.

“Is Israel Finished?”

That’s the controversial headline on the cover of the May issue of the Atlantic. In a 12-page feature, Jeffrey Goldberg asks a series of provocative questions: “How can Israel survive the next 60 years in a part of the world that gives rise to groups like Hamas? How can Israel flourish if its army cannot defeat small bands of rocketeers? Does the concentration of so many Jews in a claustrophobically small space in the world’s most volatile region actually undermine the Jewish people’s ability to survive, an ability that was called into question little more than 60 years ago, when 33 percent of the world’s Jews were murdered?”

The article, which the Jerusalem Post comments on here, says the prospects for a two-state solution are beginning to fade, which caught our attention, since Zechariah 14:1-2 say that half of Jerusalem will be taken by force—not given away through negotiation.

We also thought Goldberg’s comments about Prime Minister Olmert’s family were revealing:

Olmert’s shift to the left did not occur in a vacuum. His wife, Aliza, has been a sympathizer of Peace Now, and his children have been left-wing activists. One daughter, Dana, is a prominent gay-rights advocate in Tel Aviv, and has associated herself with groups opposed to her father’s policies. During the 2006 Israeli incursions into Gaza, she took part in a demonstration that denounced the army chief of staff as a “child killer.” One of Olmert’s sons has refused to serve his army-reserve duty in the occupied territories, and another son managed to avoid the draft altogether. Olmert’s family is not entirely unusual; the secular left, which once provided a disproportionate number of officers and commandos to the army, no longer does so ….

You can visit the Atlantic’s online version here, but as of this morning, the May edition of the magazine has not yet been posted.

Affirmative Action for Boys

College administrators are freely admitting that girls are excelling over boys in both the academic and leadership sectors at universities. The university enrollment gender gap is increasing as a result. Some are even accusing administrators of lowering the standard for boys so the gender gap does not become even worse. Timewrites,

But a gender gap has reopened: if girls were once excluded because they somehow weren’t good enough, they now are rejected because they’re too good. Or at least they are so good, compared with boys, that admissions committees at some private colleges have problems managing a balanced freshman class. Roughly 58% of undergraduates nationally are female, and the girl-boy ratio will probably tip past 60-40 in a few years. The divide is even worse for black males, who are outnumbered on campus by black females 2 to 1.While educators debate whether there is a “boy crisis” that warrants a wholesale change in how to teach, colleges are quietly stripping the pastels from brochures and launching Xbox tournaments to try to close the gap in the quality and quantity of boys applying. “It’s a gross generalization that slacker boys get in over high-performing girls,” says Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions at Kenyon College, “but developmentally, girls bring more to the table than boys, and the disparity has gotten greater in recent years.”

“You’re Spreading the Poison”

The mainstream media appears determined to bury questions related to Barack Obama’s 20-year association with Jeremiah Wright. Charles Krauthammer made this worthy observation on Friday:

[W]hen Clinton supporter Lanny Davis said on CNN that it is “legitimate” for her to have remarked “that she personally would not put up with somebody who says that 9/11 are chickens who come home to roost” or the kind of “generic comments [Wright] made about white America,” Anderson Cooper, the show’s host and alleged moderator, interjected that since “we all know what the [Wright] comments were,” he found it “amazing” and “funny” that Davis should “feel the need to repeat them over and over again.”Davis protested, “It’s appropriate.” Time magazine’s Joe Klein promptly smacked Davis down with “Lanny, Lanny, you’re spreading the—you’re spreading the poison right now,” and then suggested that an “honorable person” would “stay away from this stuff.”Amazing. We’ve gone beyond moral equivalence to moral inversion. It is now dishonorable to even make note of Wright’s bigotry and ask how any man—let alone a man on the threshold of the presidency—could associate himself for 20 years with the purveyor of such hate.

Moral inversion indeed. Sincere efforts to keep racist, conspiracy-theory-informed extremism out of the mainstream is now “spreading the poison.” The Prophet Isaiah’s words come to mind: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

Margaret Thatcher, Where Are You?

Here is a gem from James Taranto, in Thursday’s “Best of the Web” column on OpinionJournal.com.

It’s been 26 years since Argentina, then under military rule, invaded Britain’s Falkland Islands, provoking a war that the British won. Now, Agence France-Presse reports from Buenos Aires, Argentina’s democratically elected leader is making belligerent noises.

The afp article quoted President Cristina Kirchner calling Argentina’s claim to the Falklands “inalienable,” on the 26th anniversary of her nation’s failed attempt to reclaim them. “In her speech Kirchner called for Argentina to strengthen its representation in international bodies to denounce ‘this shameful colonial enclave in the 21st century,’” afp said. The nation’s vice president was even more forceful, saying, “[W]e must recover this territory that is ours, that belongs to us.” Taranto wrote,

It doesn’t sound as though Falklands War II is imminent, but with Margaret Thatcher long since having left power, we do wonder if the Brits are tough enough to mount a defense if it comes to that. This detail is not encouraging: “Foreign Minister Jorge Taina said, meanwhile, that Argentina was awaiting authorization from Britain to allow families of Argentine military personnel killed in the war to fly to the islands for the inauguration of a memorial.”London is insisting the travel be carried out by ship, but Buenos Aires has pointed out that many of the relatives are elderly and would find a long return sea voyage too tough.”The British are allowing a memorial to an invading enemy on Falklands soil? What next, a Japanese army memorial in Honolulu?

Despot Times Call for Despot Measures

Zimbabwe’s elections results are still suspended in limbo, but signs are that incumbent strongman Robert Mugabe doesn’t plan to leave without a fight. The Christian Science Monitorreports that riot police arrested foreign journalists Thursday evening, police units raided the opposition party’s offices, and “Mugabe’s key allies—veterans of the 1970s liberation war against the former white-dominated government—marched through Harare and threatened to unleash chaos if he fell from power.”

Although official results for the presidential vote have not yet been released, most projections show that Mugabe lost the first round and would lose a fair runoff. With his hold on power so threatened, many observers expect a very difficult period ahead.”This could be the beginning of a clampdown,” says Chris Maroleng, a Zimbabwe expert at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane, as Pretoria, South Africa is now called. “Now that all the foreign observers have left, [Mugabe] knows he can get a lot of things done, by arresting the media, and then targeting the opposition.”What this shows is that Mugabe is preparing for the runoff, but he will do it on his terms,” says Mr. Maroleng. “If it does become a clampdown, it will be sharp and vicious.”

Elsewhere on the Web

A new poll asked respondents who was the leader in Europe. Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t Britain. Every European country surveyed said Germany was the leader. Even most British felt like Germany was the most influential European leader. In sharp contrast to the view in Europe, Americans saw Britain as the leader of Europe.

America lost 80,000 jobs in March, its biggest drop in five years. “The drop in employment was the third consecutive monthly decline,” wrote the Wall Street Journal. “Also, revised data showed that employers cut 76,000 jobs in both January and February, more than previously thought. Together, the numbers offer the most persuasive evidence yet that the economy has slipped into a recession.”

As the U.S. dollar falls, opec is looking to protect its own profits by using an alternative currency, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

And Finally …

In an interview with the bbc broadcast on April 1, the famously outspoken Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan made this remarkably frank statement about Middle East culture:

We [Middle Easterners] come from a Byzantine civilization, from centuries of dissimulation. I mean, we are professional liars.