Roger Scruton has pointed out the

uncomfortable truth that Islamic societies are not wrong to fear and loathe

some of the West’s decadent cultural offerings. I thought of Scruton while

reading Peter Hitchens’ sober case for why Britain could become Islamic. Part of it has to do with

Muslim immigration, which you’d expect. But Hitchens also points out that

Christianity is a dead letter in Britain, with what remains of the

institutional churches showing more interest in the social gospel and the

sex lives of its clergy than in trying to reach out to and convert actual

people. Not so with Islam. Furthermore, says Hitchens, Britain is collapsing

morally, and in turn socially, from hedonism. Eventually, he says, there is

bound to be a backlash, and Islam may be the beneficiary. Sound farfetched?

Writes Hitchens, “[I]s it any more unlikely than the things which have

happened here in the past 40 years, during which a country of peaceful,

self-restrained, lawful and rather prudish men and women has been

transformed into the land of sex and swearing on TV, ladettes, semi-legal

cannabis and armed police?”