tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22031270.post114024625365789995..comments2023-11-03T19:05:08.512+11:00Comments on Harry Clarke: Muslim fertility & social disadvantageUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22031270.post-1140538880870194412006-02-22T03:21:00.000+11:002006-02-22T03:21:00.000+11:00I've read that evangelical groups in Australia hav...I've read that evangelical groups in Australia have higher fertility. In the past anti-Catholic views expressed rhe same ideas about Catholics. <BR/><BR/>And your point about abortions being carried out in non-conservative households sounds right. <BR/><BR/>My rough thinking is that your claim re the Islamification of Australia is right unless immigration steps up markedly. 1.5% is such a low base. Back of the envelope calculations suggest the fraction would not get to 5% in 100 years with 50% aboove average fertility. <BR/><BR/>Not that I am sure it matters even if it did - unless the 5% were a minority, living in ghettos and socially-disadvantaged.hchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13799594181016858701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22031270.post-1140530025842880862006-02-22T00:53:00.000+11:002006-02-22T00:53:00.000+11:00An interesting comparison with the debates about M...An interesting comparison with the debates about Muslim fertility is that demographers in the States reckon a large part of the increase in the power of the newer, more conservative denominations has been that families in these churches have more children. I can't find the article online, but I read an article recently saying that fertility rates for denominations began moving apart as early as the 1920s, and the "traditional" denominations like Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal which once dominated in the US now account for less than 20% of the population.<BR/><BR/>The abortion issue also has an interesting comparison: in the United States abortion has cut black fertility much more dramatically than white fertility, and has meant that a higher proportion of children grow up in conservative households than one would suggest from voting patterns - Democrats are less likely to have children.<BR/><BR/>As to the Islamification of Australia. It won't happen tomorrow, nor the day after, but it is possible. While people claim that Europe is now a post-Christian society, the church and Christian themes still occupy important positions in almost all European nations. The only truly post-Christian societies in the world are Muslim ones - North Africa was once a bastion of Christianity, St. Augustine wrote there, Asia Minor is littered with the ruins of churches long since empty. <BR/><BR/>These societies did not Islamicize quickly, centuries after being conquered by Muslims many regions still had non-Muslim majorities. There was intermarriage of populations, if you married a Muslim you had to become one yourself, there was favouritism, there was ethnic cleansing, and so the Islamification of Turkey, for instance, wasn't finished till Ataturk expelled / massacred the Greeks and Armenians during and after World War I - more than a thousand years after Islamic rulers established their claim over Anatolia.<BR/><BR/>The key difference is that these countries were all conquered by the mighty Muslim empire before their populations converted. That definitely isn't happening in Australia. For Australia to become a Muslim society, current trends fertility rates would have to continue unabated for centuries, Muslims would have to form a cohesive "Australian Muslim" cultural identity (which they haven't yet) and succeeding generations would have to resist the trend which sees second, third and fourth generation migrants' attachment to their ancestral religion diminish.<BR/><BR/>The Islamification of Europe is much more possible. With the exception of Turks, Muslims in Europe have the advantage of a common arabic langugage and culture from Milan to Marseilles to Malmo (in Sweden). That cohesiveness might make them a potent force in the European Enion and set Arabic as the first truly pan-European language since the demise of Latin.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22031270.post-1140301487831460912006-02-19T09:24:00.000+11:002006-02-19T09:24:00.000+11:00Not a bad blogsite DC and some interesting remarks...Not a bad blogsite DC and some interesting remarks on the Cronulla incident. Many of the 'fears' are there but the politics, in the end, became too much for me.<BR/><BR/>Beaches are 'open access; resources without formal property rights. It is nartural that racial tensions surface in such environments.<BR/><BR/>I will post on A. Sen's article on Multiculturalism in the New Republic soon.hchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13799594181016858701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22031270.post-1140277357156967902006-02-19T02:42:00.000+11:002006-02-19T02:42:00.000+11:00http://www.metamute.org/en/Under-the-Beach-the-Bar...http://www.metamute.org/en/Under-the-Beach-the-Barbed-WireAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com