Theology: Jurisprudence

Muslim Demographics

From the archive (2006): against demographic alarmism — the durable counter is communities legible through their own institutions and data.

Akber Choudhry

14 Nov 2006 • 1 min read

Why this matters now (2026): A 2006 rebuttal of Mark Steyn’s demographic alarmism. The genre it answered — Muslims as arithmetic menace — has since been industrialised online. Rebuttal remains necessary; but the durable counter is communities legible through their own institutions, data, and scholarship rather than through hostile projections. See About the QeRN Archive and Building Institutions That Last.

The October 23, 2006, issue of McLeans contains an alarmist article, “Why the future belongs to Islam,” written by Mark Steyn, is an overtly racist piece of propaganda.

A description of the cover picture is in order. The dark, ominous image features a background mass of people entirely covered in full black face veil. In the foreground, a young pre-teen girl — the only one with her face uncovered — looks up with a dark menacing stare. The subheading on the cover hints at Steyn’s argument: “The Muslim world has youth, numbers and global ambition. The West is old, barren and exhausted.”

(Seven Oaks Magazine)

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