Let’s play a game. A word-association game. It’s simple: I write a word, and you tell me the first thought that jumps to mind … Ready?

Amsterdam.

Don’t tell me … Was it weed? Hookers? Nude beaches?

Doesn’t matter. Just an exercise. Here’s another …

Islam.

Okay, no mindreading on this one, but I’ll go out on a limb and guess you weren’t thinking of nude beaches, hookers or weed. Chances are you won’t be thinking about those things either when you talk about Amsterdam decades from now.

That’s because Amsterdam’s Muslim immigrants, who today make up a third of the city’s population, are projected to become a majority by 2020, according to a recent Dutch government report.

You may draw your own conclusions from that, but one thing is certain: Those of you whose parents were cool enough to bring the family to Amsterdam saw a place vastly different from the one your children will.

Ditto for the rest of Western Europe, where hijabs and burqas are increasingly visible on the streets of France (9 percent Muslim), Denmark (5 percent), Belgium (4 percent), Sweden (4 percent), Germany (4 percent), Austria (4 percent), Switzerland (4 percent), the United Kingdom (3 percent), Spain (2 percent), Italy (2 percent), Norway (2 percent) and Greece (2 percent).

In a monocultural world, none of this would matter. But amid the profusion of falafel huts in Paris, Brussels and other European cities are some disturbing omens: local Imams are governing some Muslim neighborhoods according to Sharia law; statistics for honor killings and domestic abuse in Muslim communities are rising precipitously; and dozens of politicians and journalists with fatwas on their heads are hiring armed bodyguards for fear of becoming the next Theo Van Gogh …

Amsterdam (11/2/2004): Filmmaker Theo Van Gogh is ambushed on an Amsterdam street by 31-year old Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent, who shoots Van Gogh, stabs him ten times and pins a note to his chest threatening others who dare to ‘defame Islam’ — a reference to Van Gogh’s most recent film, Submission, about abused Muslim women.

Consider the following: For a population to sustain itself, its women must have an average of 2.1 children; the average native European woman has about 1.4. At those rates, a population of 10 million dwindles to 7 million in a generation, and to less than 5 million in two. The only reason the populations of European nations are projected to remain relatively stable in the decades ahead is that their Muslim communities are doubling every generation thanks to astronomical fertility rates and unchecked immigration.

The bottom line, according to renowned Islam scholar Bernard Lewis: “Europe

will be an Islamic continent by the end of the century.”

That’s not a problem in and of itself. Most European Muslims are hardworking, law-abiding, peace-loving people. But unlike today’s European “Christians,” they take their faith seriously. And insofar as that faith doesn’t look favorably upon gays, alcohol, abortion, gender equality and open displays of sexuality, it would be myopic to assume that laissez-faire European society won’t be forced to adapt to more conservative norms and laws as the Islamic community flexes its democratic muscle at the ballot box and in parliament. (Looking for a good time in Amsterdam’s Red-Light district? Book your plane ticket now.)

And in a post-9/11 world, strip clubs aren’t all that’s at stake.

Madrid (3/11/2004): On four commuter trains during rush hour, Moroccan and Syrian immigrants place backpacks laced with explosives and detonate them by remote control, killing 191 and wounding 2,050.

London (7/7/2005): On three subway cars and a double-decker bus, three homegrown British citizens of Pakistani descent and a Jamaican-born Muslim convert blow themselves up, killing 56 and wounding 700.

We must, of course, be careful not to stigmatize entire populations for the actions and beliefs of a few radicals ... but how few are they?

According to a poll of British Muslims taken after the London bombings, not nearly as few as many would like to think …

The good news in the poll is that 77 percent unequivocally condemned the attacks. The bad news is that 23 percent didn’t.

The good news: 73 percent said they’d inform the police if someone they knew or knew of might be planning a terrorist attack. The bad news: 27 percent admitted they wouldn’t.

The good news: 56 percent of British Muslims said they believe “Western society may not be perfect but [that] Muslims should live with it and not seek to bring it to an end.” The really bad news: 44 percent disagreed.

Britain and the countries of Western Europe can’t afford to ignore numbers like these. They must take proactive steps to stop the spread of radical Islam on their soil.

First, before allowing in waves of new Muslim immigrants, countries must ensure that they are successfully integrating those already living within their borders. Muslim youths must become fluent in the national language and the liberal Western values of tolerance, democracy and the rule of law while being made to feel that their unique heritage is respected by the majority culture.

That means that peaceful religious practice must be respected. While the French ban on the hijab in public schools may satisfy French aesthetic sensibilities, it will also needlessly alienate Muslims and lead them to transfer their children to private Islamic schools that inculcate anti-Western attitudes.

While European nations must tolerate peaceful Islam, however, they must crack down on the purveyors of Islamic fundamentalism. Beyond hunting down members of terrorist networks, Europe must rid itself of Jihad-preaching Imams and Islamic supremacist groups that lead young men into terrorist activity in the first place. There’s no tolerance in accepting the intolerant.

Lastly and most controversially, European nations must slow the relative growth of their Muslim minorities by diversifying their sources of immigration beyond the Muslim world and creating incentives for their women to, um, start making babies again.

That last part sounded bad, I know.

The Islamic Republic of France sounds worse to me.

Ben Birnbaum is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at bhb9@cornell.edu. Infomaniacs Anonymous appears Tuesdays.