"[G]o ahead and hate me if you want": KCOL's James suggested rising abortion to blame for “the rapid decline of ... civilization”

On his June 19 broadcast, Fox News Radio 600 KCOL host Scott James baselessly linked the abortion and birth rates in Europe with the “rapid decline” of civilization there because “the European cheese weenies simply aren't breeding.” Additionally, his guest, author Mark Steyn, parroted the right-wing talking point that Islam is an “explicitly political project.”

Touting the new book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, by Mark Steyn, Fox News Radio 600 KCOL host and program director Scott James on June 19 asserted that “the civilization that you know ... will be overtaken by those who would like you to practice sharia law ... just by mass numbers” because “the European cheese weenies simply aren't breeding.” During his Ride Home With the James Gang broadcast, James further claimed, “You can do the math and see the rapid decline of ... civilization” and added that Europe's “birth rate declining, the abortion rate increasing. You do the math. You don't have the sanctity for the life like that, your society will simply extinguish.” Later, guest Steyn -- a Chicago Sun-Times columnist and National Review contributor -- repeated a conservative talking point by asserting that “there is a difference between Islam and most other religions in the world today, in that Islam is an explicitly political project.”

As Media Matters for America has noted, while guest hosting on the August 24, 2006, broadcast of the nationally syndicated The Rush Limbaugh Show, Steyn contrasted the threat posed by the “jihadists” today to that of “the gooks in Vietnam” during the Vietnam War. Steyn stated: "[B]asically, if you want to find an exit strategy for Iraq, then pretty soon, you're going to... have to be finding an exit strategy for a lot of other places because those jihadists, they're not like the gooks in Vietnam. They're not just going to be content to take over Vietnam."

Furthermore, during the April 19 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, in the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech, Steyn faulted the victims for not fighting back and blamed a “culture of passivity” at the school for the shootings that left 33 people dead.

During his broadcast, James claimed to be “fascinated” with Steyn, stating that “he is so dead right on about the situation with the religion that begins with an 'I' and ends with a 'slam,' as he says throughout his book.” James further noted that Steyn “makes a bunch of points about how -- the civilization that you know, that you enjoy, that you love, will be overtaken by those who would like you to practice sharia law, and it will do so just by mass numbers. Just by demographics alone, because so many of the European cheese weenies simply aren't breeding.” He then added, “Now, as crass as that may sound, how does a society replicate itself? How does a society sustain itself? It breeds.”

Later, after saying, "[G]o ahead and hate me if you want," James stated that, according to a "Times of London" article, “birth rates have declined so rapidly since we legalized abortion. More than 200,000 women had abortions in the United Kingdom last year. A rise of four percent.” James continued by saying, “Their birth rate declining, the abortion rate increasing. You do the math. You don't have the sanctity for the life like that, your society will simply extinguish. And of course, these European cheese-weenie countries -- what's their big thing? The nanny state.”

Later in the program, Steyn said that “there is a difference between Islam and most other religions in the world today, in that Islam is an explicitly political project.” As Media Matters has documented, Steyn's statement echoes a conservative talking point advanced by Pat Robertson, host of the Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, who baselessly stated on the June 12 edition of the program that “Islam ... is a worldwide political movement meant on domination of the world. And it is meant to subjugate all people under Islamic law.” As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Denver-based 630 KHOW-AM host Peter Boyles made the same point during his May 30 broadcast, asserting that Islam should be declared “a political ideology.”

From the June 19 broadcast of Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's Ride Home with The James Gang:

JAMES: I -- I so look forward to this interview with Mark Steyn, author of America -- this is, this is a best-seller. This book's been out for, what, five, six months now -- is a best-seller. We initially got a review copy, as we often get. We got a review copy when the book first came out. I think Keith and Gail interviewed Mark when, when the book first came out -- and, and I put it somewhere. I don't know, on my nightstand or -- you think that, “Oh, this looks good, and I'm going to read this.” Well, as we were goin' through the move here about a week ago, I kind of ran out of stuff to read, and I thought, now -- oh, wait a minute; here's this Mark Steyn book that I actually had stowed away the second copy -- stowed away in my locker, you know, upstairs here, where you keep your headphones and your water bottle and that kind of stuff. And so I pulled it out of there and I started reading, and I am fascinated by this guy.

[...]

JAMES: Secondly, he is so dead right on about the situation with the religion that begins with an “I” and ends with a “slam,” as he says throughout his book, about how you can apply his thoughts to the immigration situation we have the southern border. And it's so funny -- knowing that we have this interview with him today, he, he makes a bunch of points about how -- the civilization that you know, that you enjoy, that you love, will be overtaken by those who would like you to practice sharia law, and it will do so just by mass numbers. Just by demographics alone, because so many of the European cheese weenies simply aren't breeding. Now, as crass as that may sound, how does a society replicate itself? How does a society sustain itself? It breeds.

PRODUCER: Right, faster than people die off.

JAMES: Yeah, absolutely.

PRODUCER: Uh-huh.

JAMES: If a hundred people die in a given day, then you better be breedin' to the tune of about a hundred and one. A hundred deaths, you better have a hundred and one births, or your society will be in decline.

PRODUCER: Right. Yeah.

JAMES: But many of the European nations -- the Spaniards especially, the Japanese on the, arou -- you know, all the way around the globe, are, are about the worst. The -- the, by and large, the EU, the English for every 200 deaths have about 143 births. Spaniards for every 200 deaths, about 113 births.

PRODUCER: Wow!

JAMES: You can do the math and see the rapid decline of civiliza -- civilization. So who are they using as their, as their cradle? Islamic nations. They maintain their populations, they maintain their work forces, they, they maintain their economies -- via immigration. And we can see what favor that's done the French. It's, it's absolutely fascinating, and then playing right into it today -- right into his points -- I'm goin' through the news, I find an article in the London UK, you know, the Times of London, find an article there. More tha -- and, and he talks a lot about this, how birth rates have declined, and go ahead and hate me if you want -- I don't care, I always get written up on every blog every time I even say the word abortion -- how birth rates have declined so rapidly since we legalized abortion. More than 200,000 women had abortions in the United Kingdom last year. A rise of four percent. Their birth rate declining, the abortion rate increasing. You do the math. You don't have the sanctity for the life like that, your society will simply extinguish. And of course, these European cheese-weenie countries -- what's their big thing? The nanny state.

[...]

STEYN: Well, I think, I think there is a difference between Islam and most other religions in the world today, in that Islam is an explicitly political project. And, and its political roots are long established. If you look at Christ's last words to his disciples before he ascended into heaven, he said, “Go to all the known cities in the world” -- you know, around the Mediterranean -- “and persuade people of my message.” Persuade people. That, that's what happened with Christianity. It started as a slave religion in the Roman Empire and the final stage was when the, the leadership class embraced it. Mohammed's last words to his disciples were very different. He said, “Go to all the known cities of the world and make them submit to my will.”

JAMES: Yeah.

STEYN: In other words, it's, it's a matter of conquest. It's an imperial project. And Islam was the opposite thing; they started by taking over countries, and then the people in those countries had the option of converting to Islam or paying special taxes or being killed or whatever. But the -- but that political component, that imperialist component, is built into Is -- it's hard-wired into Islam. And when you have this radicalized Islam that is replacing, you know, the traditional moderate forms of Islam in Indonesia and Bangladesh and all those “stans” in Central Asia, the idea that somehow a country like Belgium or, or a country like the United Kingdom will be able to resist that tide I think is very doubtful.