One of the frustrating things about trying to warn against a gradually-developing threat is that many people choose to ignore the warnings until it is almost too late. Perhaps this is human nature. We prefer to ignore unpleasant realities as much as possible, and don’t believe a problem is real until we can see it with our own eyes. Some people will not believe it even then.

If seeing is believe, the time has now come to believe. The problems of mass migration and radical Islam have been developing for a long time. However, they have intensified recently and keep on escalating. 2015 may in hindsight be remembered as the year when illegal mass immigration was brought to the forefront of mass media attention. Migrants have been arriving illegally to the Western world for many years. Yet the flow of illegal migrants arriving in boats in the Mediterranean has drastically increased in 2015 compared to 2013 or 2014.

After some high-profile incidents in which migrants have drowned,[1] several European countries sent ships to pick up illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean and bring them to Europe. Critics argue that this is not a long-term solution. This sends out a signal to illegal immigrants and people smugglers that Europe is open to them. That will encourage even more of them to come. There is no reason to assume that the pressure of illegal immigration from the south will stop in the year 2016, 2017 or 2030. On the contrary, the ongoing population explosion in Africa and parts of the Middle East indicates that mass migration could further increase in scale in the coming years. The turmoil caused by militant Islam also continues.

Sometimes, bringing attention to a problem may trigger accusations that you caused the problem to exist in the first place. Jan Opsal is a Professor of Science of religion at the School of Mission and Theology (MHS) in Stavanger, Norway. He works with issues related to Christian-Muslim relations. In July 2015, Professor Opsal accused me personally of contributing to the rise of radical and militant Islam by spreading alleged “conspiracy theories” about Islam.[2] According to him, “Those who warn against Islam, through constant assertions that are not factual, will thereby contribute to increased radicalization of Islam.” Mr. Opsal further suggested that maybe one tenth of a percentage point of Muslims support the Islamic State (IS or ISIS).

With all due respect to the professor, the percentage of Muslims sympathizing with the militant Muslims of ISIS is a lot bigger than what he suggests. It could be 50 times as great, or even 100 to 200 times. Muslims supporting jihadists from groups such as ISIS or al-Qaida can now be found in cities and towns across the Western world. This is not a “conspiracy theory.” It is a fact. Just listen to the increasingly worried warnings of professional security services.

Furthermore, if you listen to the jihadists themselves, they legitimize their actions by referring to the Koran and other authoritative Islamic texts. Suggesting that critics of Islam helped cause the slave markets and massacres of ISIS is not merely wrong, it is absurd. This is like suggesting that critics of Communism caused the Gulag, or that critics of Nazism caused Auschwitz.

Next to Islamic theology, the primary cause of radicalization in Europe today is arguably the immigration policies promoted by Western political elites. EU governments have a duty to help the flood of migrants arriving in Europe and not cave in to “populist” demands to turn them back, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker says.[3] In other words, EU leaders think native Europeans have a “duty” to settle large numbers of illegal immigrants from dysfunctional African and Muslim societies permanently in their nations. “Ministers, unlike citizens, have an obligation to act. We made proposals that went far, while still being modest given the scale of the problem,” Juncker said, referring to the proposals from the Commission, the executive arm or unelected “government” of the 28-nation EU. “We proposed a mandatory system to redistribute asylum seekers and people who need international protection, but the member states did not follow us,” he said. At a July 20, 2015 meeting in Brussels, EU justice and home affairs ministers agreed to relocate more than 32,250 Syrians, Eritreans, Iraqis and Somalis who had landed in Greece and Italy. The ministers also agreed to take in some 22,500 Syrian refugees currently living in camps outside the EU. Juncker said the EU would resume efforts to reach a higher target. “If we don’t get there on a voluntary basis, we will have to reconsider the Commission’s proposals,” the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg said. Mandatory distribution of asylum seekers among member states is still being seriously considered.

Illegal immigrants currently arrive on a daily basis, at a pace of hundreds of thousands annually. They use every trick imaginable to get into Europe, perceived as the promised land of milk and honey. Migrants hide in containers, storm trucks, occupy railway stations or use inflatable rubber dinghies. Some even try to swim to European-controlled territories,[4] or get smuggled in suitcases.[5] Meanwhile, there is rising opposition among ordinary Europeans to having their local communities forcibly changed by this influx.

It is interesting to note that some of the strongest opposition to mass immigration can be found in societies that have first-hand experience with Communist rule: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Eastern Germany and Baltic nations. Nationalists protested in Riga, Latvia’s capital, against their country’s taking in a planned 250 migrants under an EU resettlement scheme. “I don’t feel that EU institutions are listening to our concerns about taking in refugees from very different cultures,” said MP Raivis Dzintars.[6] Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has repeatedly sounded the alarm. He warns that mass immigration constitutes a threat to European civilization.

EUSSRIt has long been a joke to compare the European Union to the Soviet Union, an EUSSR. Some people wonder whether this is really a joke. The Russian intellectual and former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovksy believes the EU has certain structural similarities to the dictatorial Soviet Union.[7] The unelected and powerful European Commission resembles the Soviet Politburo, ruling hundreds of millions of people without their consent. While partly true, it should be mentioned that not even Communist states such as the Soviet Union championed mass immigration of Muslims and Africans on the scale which the EU is doing today. The USA does, however. The EU seems to have adopted harmful traits from both Cold War superpowers: The anti-democratic bureaucratic structure of the Soviet Union, and the mass immigration “diversity” policies of the USA.

It has become increasingly apparent that the EU in its present form is actively harmful to the long-term interests of native Europeans. The organization provides weak leadership. When it attempts any leadership at all, it usually leads Europe in the wrong direction. The handling of illegal immigration and radical Islam has been very poor, and dominated by Utopian ideas without basis in reality. Its handling of the euro crisis in Greece has not been impressive, either. With its increasingly authoritarian centralization, the EU robs national parliaments of their power and undermines its own popular legitimacy. The repeated attempts to force illegal immigrants on all of its member states trigger outright hostility. Its immigration policies contribute to the rising polarization of European societies.

Perhaps the EU will be remembered as the alleged “peace project” that once again plunged Europe into conflict.

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Notes:

1. www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33791920 Rescue hopes fade for migrants after boat capsizes in Mediterranean 6 August 2015
2. www.smp.no/nyheter/article11358314.ece — Skremmebilder av islam gir radikalisering. Published in the regional Norwegian newspaper Sunnmørsposten, 28.07 2015.
3. www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/europe-migrants.13r9 Juncker urges EU members to resist ‘populist’ rejection of migrants 6 August 2015.
4. latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/08/02/4-sub-saharan-africans-drown-while-trying-to-swim-to-ceuta/ 4 Sub-Saharan Africans drown while trying to swim to Ceuta August 02, 2015.
5. www.thelocal.es/20150805/brother-of-man-who-died-in-suitcase-charged Man held over brother’s death inside suitcase 05 Aug 2015.
6. euobserver.com/tickers/129838 Latvian nationalists protest against immigration 5. Aug 2015.
7. www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865 Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship. Vladimir Bukovksy in interview with Paul Belien, 2006-02-27.