Christopher Caldwell attributes “Europe’s Crisis of Faith” (Review, Jan. 17) to the unwillingness of France and the rest of Western Europe to honestly confront the issues raised by massive Muslim immigration. Without immigration, Europe’s population would be plummeting because Europeans, by and large, have stopped procreating. Mr. Caldwell describes the emergence of a stronger, more unified and relatively unassimilated population of Muslim immigrants and their descendants as “partly a demographic problem” and that much is true as long as “partly” means the lion’s share. Demographic trends generally are etched in stone for at least a couple of decades, and today’s turmoil in Europe was fairly predictable to anyone analyzing trends many years ago.

Demographic trends are a lot like a mile-long freight train. They can be stopped, but not easily. Even if immigration from Muslim states slows and native-born Europeans re-embrace the joys and expense of having babies, Europe’s problems aren’t going away anytime soon.

The Wall Street Journal