A politically correct cardinal

According to Kerknet, citing ANP, our cardinal Godfried Danneels said that the christians in Western Europe owe their growing selfconfidence and the greater appreciation of politicians for their role in society to Islam. That is a political correct expression if I ever saw one ... Maybe the cardinal was somewhat more nuanced in his - often woolly - speech, but this is what the press reports. There may be some truth in what the cardinal said, but I think he overstated his case.

So did Mark Steyn - I disagree with most of what he wrote in his notorious "It's the Demography, Stupid" - but here are some excerpts which bear thinking about - I was reminded of them by reading about the present trouble in the Gaza strip.
A little contrarian counterpoison to the cardinal's words ...

"The Muslim faith, whatever its merits for the believers, is a problematic business for the rest of us. There are many trouble spots around the world, but as a general rule, it's easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in "Palestine," Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali. Like the environmentalists, these guys think globally but act locally. .... Radical Islam is an opportunistic infection, like AIDS: It's not the HIV that kills you, it's the pneumonia you get when your body's too weak to fight it off. ... Which the smarter Islamists have figured out ... they figure there's an excellent chance they can drag things out until Western civilization collapses in on itself and Islam inherits by default. "

A major point which Steyn raises is : " ... our lack of civilizational confidence. As a famous Arnold Toynbee quote puts it: "Civilizations die from suicide, not murder"--as can be seen throughout much of "the Western world" right now. The progressive agenda--lavish social welfare, abortion, secularism, multiculturalism--is collectively the real suicide bomb. Take multiculturalism. The great thing about multiculturalism is that it doesn't involve knowing anything about other cultures--the capital of Bhutan, the principal exports of Malawi, who cares? All it requires is feeling good about other cultures. It's fundamentally a fraud, and I would argue was subliminally accepted on that basis. Most adherents to the idea that all cultures are equal don't want to live in anything but an advanced Western society."

It takes a strong stomach to read through the whole biaised article, but there is some food for thought, indeed.
http://kerknet.be/nieuws/ of today
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760