Friday, July 4, 2008  TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING: A History of the
Future (short version)  [The following is the short version of
my book-length fictional future history, Twilight's Last
Gleaming . I made a few changes as I expanded it into a novel
length work, and so have made revisions in this short version to
bring it in line with the full-length chronicle. Copyright©
2006, 2008 by Charles Hoffman]  As America prepared to celebrate
its 300th birthday in 2076, the greatest external threat facing
the United States was the Islamic Federation of Europe. The
Islamic Federation of Europe had existed as a formal political
entity for only a few decades, but its roots went back much
further. At the dawn of the 21st Century, sizable Muslim
minorities already existed in such European nations as France,
Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. As the indigenous
populations dwindled, the Muslim population expanded, both
through considerably higher birth rates and additional unchecked
immigration. Muslims also made remarkabl