Treatment of Islam

Some people have expressed the opinion that Islam poses a serious risk for world peace.  I think that the truth in this matter lies somewhere in the middle.  Those who think that Muslims are more likely to become terrorists are and plunge the world into war are almost certainly wrong.  The vast overwhelming majority of Muslims are law abiding citizens, few of whom would commit acts of terrorism.

Another idea on this subject is that Muslims will take over many countries by demography.  I suspect the risk here is over-estimated.  Birth rates in all countries decline as female literacy increases and industrialization gives women economic opportunities.  Muslim countries have higher birth rates than people in other countries, but it is not clear that they will retain this attribute when they become more advanced.

The idea that Muslim immigrants will take over countries is also overblown.  The country in Europe that has the highest number of Muslim immigrants is probably France.  60% of the immigrants from north Africa are Muslim.  In order for Muslims to make up 50% of the population of this country, France would have to take in a very large number of immigrants indeed.  They would have to make up an overwhelming majority of the population of that country.  In the U.S. the situation is such that it is much less likely that Muslims would become a majority.  In fact the overwhelming majority come from Latin America, where Islam is quite rare.

That having been said, the point that Islam may have a negative effect on liberalism has some validity.  Muslim populations don't seem to favor the same sort of freedom of religion that we enjoy in this country.  Laws against blasphemy are frequently popular.  For this reason, it might be a cause for some concern if a Muslims are likely to become a majority in the near future in your country.  However, this is a long term problem.

In any case, the majority of the world population is non-Muslim.  Even if it is the case that Islam poses some threat to a nations liberal institutions, and that this persists no matter how advanced the society is, it is likely that you will be able to find some country that does not have a Muslim majority for the foreseeable future.  At present it is not even the case that the number of Muslims is growing the fastest.  In numbers Christianity is growing faster.  It is only the growth rate of Islam that is higher, the increase in number as a proportion of the number itself.  This is because there are fewer Muslims.

It is not clear whether Muslim immigrant populations will remain Muslim.  We cannot be certain that liberalism with respect to religion will not gain popularity in traditionally Muslim countries.

Moreover, resorting to legal discrimination against Muslims would cause more problems than it would solve.  Mistreating a minority population will result in hostility on their part, and could very easily have a negative impact on assimilation of the targeted group.  Most importantly, this form of discrimination is incompatible with separation of church and state.  If people are denied equal treatment under the law on the basis of religion, what sort of religious tests are we to implement in order to separate the "good" people from the "bad" ones?  We would have to set up government organizations to scrutinize whether each individual's religion was acceptable.  Don't think that this would only adversely effect Muslims.  Once such a system was set up it could be used against any unpopular group.

The solution to this problem is for people in free societies to say what they believe and why they believe it.  Non-Muslims can explain why they believe that Islam isn't true.  Muslims who believe in religious freedom can explain why they hold this opinion.  This approach, or rather these approaches, leave liberal political institutions intact, which is the point after all.