As a young boy many years ago, while at a carnival, I asked a fortune teller how old I might live to be. Without hesitation, she responded for at least 102 years. Why she said 102 rather than just an even 100, I don’t know. But, back then, it did not matter. I was a lot further away from 102 than I am today, and far less focused on hanging around that long.
While I had never given this carnival-air prophecy any merit, for some reason I started thinking about it recently. I wondered how different the world would be in 2050—the year I would supposedly turn 102—from the world of the eleven-year old boy in 1959 who asked the fortune teller the question.
As I reflect upon a world that will obviously have many technological advances future research may bring us such as flying taxis, curing cancer, mining asteroids for minerals, etc., my main focus now is not on the technological evolution but on the human one in the Western world. In 2050, what will the makeup be of Western nations, or those which embraced the Western model of freedom and democracy?
Take, for example, the nation of India. By 2050, it will celebrate a century since adopting a constitution and transitioning to a sovereign, democratic republic. A 2011 census reported the religious breakdown of the population as follows: the vast majority (79.8%) are Hindu, followed by Islam (14.2%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%) and Jainism (0.4%).
However, by 2050, it is projected that India will hit a major milestone. It will displace Indonesia as the state having the single largest Muslim population in the world.
Meanwhile, France is the Western country with the largest Muslim population. Thus, as far as Paris and other French cities go, based on current demographic projections, by 2050 an AI-generated video tells us these cities will be drowning in Islamic influence. As such, they will become bastions for spreading Islam across Europe and, by the very nature of a religion that seeks to make all other religions subservient to it, Islam will bring a cultural shift to the region as Muslim demographics rise unchecked.
A 2019 PSU Research study identifies 13 countries that will become Muslim majority countries as well, although not until later in the 21st century and beyond. Within the timeframe of 2085 to 2215, it suggests it may happen to Cyprus (2085), Sweden (2125), Greece (2135), Belgium (2140), Bulgaria (2140), Italy (2175), Luxembourg (2175), the UK (2180), Slovenia (2190), Switzerland (2195), Ireland (2200) and Lithuania (2215).
Interestingly, while Muslim births are driving their population numbers up in democracies, there is one in the Middle East where, oddly, such birth rates actually fall below that of the host country—Israel. A demographic study this year reveals the Jewish population is, surprisingly, growing more rapidly there than the Arab Muslim population in Israel and Gaza, particularly in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Between 1995–2024, birth rates for Jews increased 73% while those for Arab Muslims only grew 18%. Thus, while it appears that Israel will remain a Muslim minority for years to come, several of the Western countries supporting it may not.
The Muslim population in both England and Wales has also been growing—by 44% during the past decade. In fact, Muslims are increasingly opting to use Britain’s Sharia courts—which have no legal authority in the country. The UK is considered the “Western capital” for these courts where a husband can simply divorce a wife by repeating “divorce” three times—and he does not even have to be in a Sharia court to do so. These courts have probably performed at least 100,000 marriages. The first Sharia court opened in 1982 and there are now 85 of them there.
The bias for Muslim males of Sharia court judges is well known. One famously suggested, “A man should not be questioned why he hit his wife because this is something between them. Leave them alone. They can sort out their matters among themselves.”
There will be those who claim my above comments are Islamophobic. They may wish to reflect upon what happened to the people of Lebanon and what Western cultures are experiencing today.
In 1970, Lebanon was considered a Christian majority country (62%). However, Arab civil wars and the growing influence of militant Islam caused Christians to emigrate. By 2010, the Christian population had dropped almost in half to 32%. Today, the capital of Beirut remains segregated by religion with little interaction. Unsurprisingly, Christians now make up the largest segment of Lebanon’s diaspora population.
While still Christian, Beirut was a tourist attraction and financial center known as “the Paris of the Middle East”—a title fed by its vibrant culture, intellectual life, and French influence. However, that all came crashing down in 1975 with the Lebanese Civil War and when Iran later helped establish the Hezbollah terrorist group there in the early 1980s.
Based on the influx of Muslim immigrants into Europe, non-Muslims are starting to learn about Muslim “no-go zones.” These are areas in a foreign country where Muslims settled, and now ban the country’s own residents from passing through them. It is estimated at least 900 no-go zones exist across Europe. They are in the U.S. as well.
Should the aforedescribed fate, i.e., falling to Islamic influence, hit Western democracies, they will have been caught up in their own catch-22. It will demonstrate Western states’ greatest strengths—their freedom and democracy—are also their greatest weaknesses. For it was freedom and democracy that opened their doors to Islam—of which Muslims took advantage—using the welcome mat given, to kick other religions that were secure in the country out.
In Homer’s Odyssey, the Sirens sought to lure Odysseus and his crew to their destruction. Ironically, we may well be lured to ours due to a desire to ensure freedom and democracy for all, including Islam—ignoring the threat it poses to us caused by the same freedom and democracy that allows it to thrive. If so, that will be the ultimate irony.
Image generated by AI.