Long ago, they were dystopian fantasies. To imagine a world with the night sky lit up by burning cathedrals. A world of Christians fleeing for their lives in plundered, smoking landscapes. A broken Europe suffering the same fate as Constantinople in 1453: Destruction, carnage, and enslavement. 

The Muslim invasion of Europe has already taken place. Not that the Christian heartland (i.e. unlike exposed places such as Cyprus in 1974) has been taken by military force as when Moorish and Ottoman armies advanced from opposite corners of the world, West and East, respectively. The “invasion” is rather a reference to an immigration wave completely without parallel in history — the continued and unchecked arrival of large crowds of people from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Reinforcing well-known trends of cultural impoverishment and social disintegration, which we owe to a century of self-destructive modernism and secularism, the immigration of asylum seekers and adventurers by the millions has accelerated the breakdown of Western civilization. As a result, life in the farthest corner of the Eurasian continent — the destination of migratory movements throughout the ages — is changing profoundly. 

Those, who urgently warned against the consequences of unrestrained immigration on culture and social cohesion in Europe, were at first shamed for exaggerating and running scare campaigns. Unfortunately, however, their predictions proved correct. Of course, it has never required anything like a fellowship in statistics roughly to project the demographic development. If the matter were not far too serious for self-righteous exchanges, the alleged scaremongers could have demanded redress: “We told you so!” 

Nowadays, nobody can seriously doubt that Europe is changing beyond recognition. A change known as “transculturation” is visible everywhere. Therefore, the public debate has moved on without further ado. In general, the staunch advocates of immigration — members of the progressive elite ­— are unwilling to admit that they have led the public astray and apologize for a predictable disaster. They knew very well what they were doing and harbor neither shame nor guilt.

In the meantime, without further justification, the liberal-socialist response to the pessimistic warnings of conservative debaters has been rephrased; it now reads, not that the pessimists are actually wrong about the demographic projections, which spell the inevitable downfall of the West, but that they simply have to recognize the fait accompli. There is no turning back, anyway.

Nothing but an intermediate phenomenon on the road to an ideological monoculture (i.e. Islam), the “diversity” which we are expected to celebrate like another gospel, alludes to competing faiths (and secular allegiances) in the post-Christian, transitional society. The progressive elite, who have replaced Christian piety with secular humanitarianism and effectively invited the immigrants, insist that Europe as we knew it — the Europe of Christendom — is gone forever. Without being asked, Europeans have been deprived of their birthright — their own homelands. 

Characteristic of our cultural circle, conflicting ideas and material interests used to be the driving force of scientific progress and philosophy. That is about to change. In the name of “tolerance,” restrictions of foreign origin are now being imposed on our freedom (e.g. Muslim blasphemy rules). It goes without saying that we would be very naïve to expect reciprocity in Muslim countries of the Middle East or beyond. On the contrary, Christians and other religious minorities, e.g. the Zoroastrians of Iran or the Yazidis of Iraq, are treated as second-rate citizens — or “dhimmis.” 

Instead of proudly standing by our history — “who” we are as Westerners and “what” we have accomplished for the benefit of humanity at large, including (a) the democratic model of society, (b) a free press (conditioned by freedom of speech), and (c) the rule of law — we are doubting our fundamental principles and have embarked on a moral retreat. It takes place in small steps, though, which is why it fails to be noticed and upset anybody. What seems to be an unreasonable concession to Muslim immigrants today, may become reality tomorrow or the day after. The change in society is insidious, but irreversible.

Thus, Western countries are in the process of changing from a Christian-secular to a post-Christian identity. We renounce everything that previously defined us intellectually and morally. In the past century, while barely surviving Nazism and Bolshevism, we have become strangers to the refinements of classical (a) literature, (b) architecture, and (c) sculpture; the same applies to (d) choral song, (e) symphonic music, and (f) opera. In the West, access to knowledge is unlimited, but not the desire for learning and reflection. Consequently, we have cut ourselves off from the past (history) and have no idea how to approach the future.

A sign of the times, we have become so uncertain of our own judgment that we hesitate to speak out in response to blatant barbarism and demands for submission. We are frightened, but try to downplay the danger so as not to escalate the conflict. If we had preserved the courage of faith, we would stand together and guard the symbols of civilization. For the sake of posterity, we should fiercely protect them against the invaders. However, the division in our society is deep, faith faded, and courage waning. As Christian congregations die out, churches are closed as houses of worship or converted into mosques.

Originally an attraction for Western exoticists, “multicultural” neighborhoods (i.e. ranging from streets to entire districts) are being taken over by Islamists and turned into enclaves (i.e. the likes of Molenbeek) with religious policing, shadow courts (Sharia councils), and a menacing atmosphere of intolerance towards “infidels.” The ominous transition from playing the part of victims, smartly adapted to Christian charity, to adopting an air of supremacy reveals an opportunistic, deceptive strategy. 

Against a tragic background, the political theater is unwittingly comical inasmuch as it gives away an embarrassing degree of hypocrisy in European history. Our elected leaders pretend that we represent an immutable civilization, exercise a democratic right to self-determination, and are ready to defend ourselves against evil (e.g. totalitarian forces). However, that was yesterday’s world; none of it holds true any longer. Nevertheless, Europeans are repeatedly exhorted to carry on as usual in the face of organized crime, street riots, and terrorism. Supposedly, we must resist the demands of so-called “extremists” (i.e. an evasive paraphrase for Islamists) that threaten our way of living. 

However, nothing is as it used to be in Europe. To be sure, we have our own leaders to thank for lack of foresight, cowardice, and treason. The future prospect is unbearable. In the cultural void left by classical aesthetics and Christian ethics, we are at a loss to gain an existential foothold. Modernism and secularism, the depraved parents of identity crisis and woke nihilism in the West, have paved the way for foreign conquest by breaking down our aesthetic and ethical concepts. We have abandoned beauty in favor of nothingness, morality in favor of relativism. Spiritually, we have long since been disarmed.

Islamists preparing for the caliphate are unrelenting supremacists. Contemptuous of compromise, they demand unconditional submission from suspected apostates and infidels alike. Those, who refuse to comply and make their opinion known, warning against unfreedom and cruelty (e.g. malignant patriarchism, penal sadism, and anti-Semitism), are made to feel the consequences. In a transitional society moving away from democracy and freedom of speech, they are silenced one way or the other — if not by “social-justice warriors,” who accuse them of “Islamophobia” or “racism,” echoing the mantras of “political correctness,” then by the invaders themselves.

Despite the assurances of political leaders, who have refused to avert the Muslim invasion, public institutions and civil society are on the verge of collapse. Probably, the progressive elite will never be held to account for the betrayal of the West — our common home for millennia as polytheistic worshippers (i.e. Greek-Roman, Celtic, and Germanic), Christians (and Jews) or atheists.

Self-censorship becomes the prudent, self-preserving norm when dealing with delicate matters such as mass immigration and Islamization. Nobody, neither the police nor the courts, comes to the rescue of the modern freedom-loving “heretic.” The lively public debate that used to characterize the open society falls silent. Like the bells of the desecrated churches.

Image: Public domain.