Defusing the bomb

In Denmark, the birth rate among the "immigrant" (that is, mostly Muslim) population has fallen dramatically, from 3.04 per woman in 1998 to 1.94 today -- hardly different from the 1.91-per-woman rate among the ethnic Danish population. Similar trends have been reported from elsewhere in western Europe. This is further evidence that Muslim populations in Europe are being culturally assimilated by their host countries, despite the tremendous resistance which Islam presents to this process. The Muslim population will continue to grow for a while simply because it is younger and contains a higher proportion of people in the child-producing years, but the threat of Muslim populations growing dramatically larger than their present size appears to have been defused (barring immigration at implausible levels). And the de-Islamization of the existing Muslim populations will continue and probably increase.

That birth rate of 1.91 among ethnic Danes, by the way, represents a substantial increase compared with the recent past; in fact, it's the highest since 1975. A similar resurgence in birth rates among indigenous peoples has been going on throughout western Europe.

Islam continues to present a formidable threat, both from violent jihadism and from its tendency to create failed societies that can't adapt to modernity. But claims that it might overwhelm Europe demographically in a matter of decades -- never very credible in the first place -- now seem absurd.