In April of 2006, Muammar al-Gaddafi cautioned the West, “The fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades. … Europe is in a predicament and so is America. They should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims.” Conservative pundit Mark Steyn’s new book America Alone deals with this “predicament” that faces Europe and America, warning that al-Gaddafi’s words might be stunningly prescient.

America Alone begins with a few doomsday scenarios: nuclear catastrophe, submerged cities resulting from melted polar caps and global warming, and widespread famine due to overpopulation. According to Steyn, the likelihood that any of these events will occur in the near future is minimal, if not infinitesimal. Rather, the more imminent crisis looming on the horizon for the Western world is, amongst other things, under-population. Steyn says 2.1 live births per woman are needed in order to hold a population’s size at a constant number. America has almost exactly the right number to maintain a stable population: 2.11 live births per woman. The problem comes from the abysmally low birthrates of other Western countries, especially Europe: “Europe as a whole has 1.38; Japan, 1.32; Russia, 1.14 . . . Spain, 1.1.” Some of these countries are almost halving their populations within a generation. So what’s the big deal? Well, “[s]ome countries are well above that: the global fertility leader, Niger, is 7.46; Mali, 7.42; Somalia, 6.76; Afghanistan, 6.69; Yemen, 6.58.”

Steyn also calls attention to the young populations in Islamic countries and the comparably ancient masses of people who make up Western populations. Of the five countries with high fertility rates and large Muslim populations, Afghanistan and Somalia have the “oldest” median age at 17.6, while the median age in Mali is 15.8. On the other hand, the median age in Western countries is around 40, give or take a few years. The point is clear, though, that the populations in Islamic countries are much younger and increasing while European populations dwindle.

In light of these statistics, Steyn highlights the increasing number of Muslims currently living in Europe. In France, Muslims are said to make up around forty percent of the population less than twenty years old. In some Scandinavian cities, Muslims make up forty percent of the total population. Finally, according to Norwegian imam Mullah Krekar, whom Steyn quotes, “[e]very Western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim women in the same countries is producing 3.5 children.”

Although never stated in quite so many words, the problem with all these observations goes back to what al-Gaddafi said about Europe and America. The former already appears to be on the way to “becoming Islamic,” but Steyn believes that America still has a chance to avoid Europe’s fate. He does express concern that that if Europe does go Islamic, America will lose its biggest ally.

Ultimately, Europe itself is to blame for its present situation. Extensive government welfare programs are the cause for the low birthrates, says Steyn. According to his theory, Europeans have begun to look to the government to provide everything for them and consequently have become so wrapped up in meeting their own needs that they have lost interest in creating new life. Ironically, this means that they lack a new generation large enough to sustain all of the expensive government programs, let alone repopulate the continent. Steyn calls Europe a “Eutopia” leaning on social programs and other government benefits like six weeks of paid vacation, government day care, and lifelong welfare. Apparently, Europeans are enjoying themselves to such an extent that having babies is seen as a burden that will cut down on adult playtime. As Europe’s old timers pass on without being replaced by a full, native-born generation, Muslim immigrants fill in the empty spaces. Moreover, Europe welcomes immigrants with open arms because somebody has to foot the bill for all those social programs, and Europe’s low birth rate has made it incapable of supporting these programs itself.

Europe also appeals to Muslims because of its “soft culture.” Steyn explains that Europe’s willingness to assimilate to Islamic culture, instead of Muslims having to adopt European customs, shows Muslims that Europe is weak and ripe for the colonizing. One of the examples that Steyn gives of Europe’s weak spine comes from England, where the English flag, featuring St. George’s cross, is no longer flown over prisons because the cross was used during the Crusades and is therefore offensive to Muslims. Even small concessions such as this show that England will readily conform to other cultures.

A few times throughout the book, Steyn is careful to mention that he doesn’t believe all Muslims “support terrorists–though enough of them share their basic objectives (the wish to live under Islamic law in Europe and North America) to function wittingly or otherwise as the ‘good cop’ end of an Islamic good cop/bad cop routine.”

Steyn essentially proposes an ideological warfare against Islam in addition to ending the Iranian regime, transforming the energy industry, and achieving some other political goals. Unfortunately, Steyn’s argument falters due to his failure to cite any sources for any of the figures he gives, which form the overwhelming basis for his contentions. All of the birthrates are corroborated by the CIA World Factbook, but he doesn’t state where he found the percentages of Muslims living in European cities—a crucial component of his argument. The biggest flaw of the book, however, is Steyn’s informal style, which, in addition to his lack of citations, can sometimes make his arguments seem flippant and incredible. This weakness is unfortunate, as it keeps his book from reaching its full potential as a serious, thought-provoking look at the world today. Ultimately, America Alone provides an important and compelling look at the future of America and the West, but Steyn fails to present this view as the convincing and forceful analysis it could be.