1.
Europe is being conquered. Already today, there are neighborhoods in major cities where police no longer enter, and native residents are fleeing. One can still travel across the continent without noticing the phenomenon and conclude—like much of Europe's leadership—that the real problem is Israel, not the millions of residents in their own backyard who despise their culture, their faith, their history, and the great ideas born in their academies.
During a recent visit to Europe, I was reminded of German philosopher Oswald Spengler's century-old book The Decline of the West. He described the rise and collapse of ancient civilizations, warning that the same fate awaited the modern West. A society that begins to question the very need to bring children into the world, Spengler wrote, is a society signaling its end. Today, Europe is indeed an aging continent with few children, except among immigrants who take full advantage of generous child allowances and hospitality. Spengler also predicted that at the end of every civilization's decline awaits "the fellah".
2.
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who died three years ago, issued a religious ruling in 2003 to encourage his followers in what he called Europe's land of unbelievers. He declared: "The signs of salvation are as clear as the sun. The future belongs to Islam, and this religion of Allah will defeat all others." Qaradawi cited a tradition that one of the signs of redemption would be the conquest of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), followed by the conquest of Rome.
"Constantinople was conquered in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, son of Murad. Now only Rome remains, and for this we yearn and believe. The meaning is clear: Islam will return to Europe once more as conqueror and victor, after being expelled twice. I believe this conquest will not be by the sword, but through preaching and spreading Islamic ideology… until Islam embraces both East and West (in other words, the entire world)."
3.
For nearly a thousand years, Constantinople was the capital of Eastern Christianity, the Byzantine Empire, before becoming Muslim. Rome, as the seat of Western Christianity, holds even greater symbolic weight, standing for the entire Western civilization whose great cities Qaradawi and the Muslim Brotherhood dream of conquering.
Qaradawi was referring to the two occasions when Islam was turned back in Europe. The first was the Battle of Tours on October 10, 732, when Charles Martel (the Hammer) stopped the Muslim advance and pushed it back beyond the Pyrenees. The second was at the Gates of Vienna nearly a thousand years later, on September 12, 1683, when a combined army of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish kingdom defeated the Ottoman forces of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha at Kahlenberg Hill.
4.
Muslims have long memories. They have never relinquished al-Andalus, Islamic Spain, even though today Spain's government imagines it can buy peace by sacrificing the Jews, as it did in the 15th century. Madrid now plans to recognize a Palestinian terrorist state that exists only in Spanish fantasy, hoping Muslims will be satisfied. They will not. They should read Qaradawi.
France has forgotten the legacy of Charles Martel. President Emmanuel Macron now seeks to assert independence from US President Donald Trump by striking at Israel, pushing forward recognition of a Palestinian state. Its Independence Day, Macron seems to imply, will be October 7. Like his predecessors in the 1930s, Macron is blind to the dangers on his doorstep, failing to see the brutal reality: a Palestinian state already exists in Paris and other French cities, long since taken over by Muslim immigrants.
5.
Many Arab countries have banned the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Not so in Europe, where it operates freely, undermining democratic and liberal foundations. It also serves as the chief inciter against Israel and against Jews. Here is one emergency step to save Europe: outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood across the European Union.
