More people in Europe are dying than are being born, according to a new report co-authored by a Texas A&M University demographer. In contrast, births exceed deaths, by significant margins, in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S., with few exceptions.
Texas A&M Professor of Sociology Dudley Poston, along with Professor Kenneth Johnson, University of New Hampshire, and Professor Layton Field, Mount St. Mary's University, published their findings in Population and Development Review this month.
The researchers find that 17 European nations have more people dying in them than are being born (natural decrease), including three of Europe's more populous nations: Russia, Germany and Italy. In contrast, in the U.S. and in the state of Texas, births exceed deaths by a substantial margin.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-people-europe-dying-born.html
[Abstract]: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00089.x/abstract (DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00089.x)
[Source]: Is Europe Dying
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @07:42PM
Indeed! Just as when the Muslims conquered Spain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml [bbc.co.uk]
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/24/spain-sephardic-jews-islam-muslim [theguardian.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 19 2016, @01:38AM
I'm not entirely sure what point you were trying to make with you links, but there are some bits I'll highlight.
From your first link:
A Golden Age of religious tolerance?
Islamic Spain is sometimes described as a 'golden age' of religious and ethnic tolerance and interfaith harmony between Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Some historians believe this idea of a golden age is false and might lead modern readers to believe, wrongly, that Muslim Spain was tolerant by the standards of 21st century Britain.
The true position is more complicated. The distinguished historian Bernard Lewis wrote that the status of non-Muslims in Islamic Spain was a sort of second-class citizenship but he went on to say:
Second-class citizenship, though second class, is a kind of citizenship. It involves some rights, though not all, and is surely better than no rights at all...
...A recognized status, albeit one of inferiority to the dominant group, which is established by law, recognized by tradition, and confirmed by popular assent, is not to be despised.
Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam, 1984
Oh, and don't forget this bit either:
In Islamic Spain, Jews and Christians were tolerated if they: