Hello from Jihad and the World – a podcast that explores the intersection of Western and Islamic cultures. The author is Mark Silinsky of Kensington Security Consulting, which provides education on national security. Today’s episode is longer than most. It begins a series called Jihad and the West, titled – Europe Has Fallen: Islam, Britain, and the Continent. Episode One offers an overview of Europe from several years ago. We will update parts of this podcast in future episodes. First, let's turn to a book by English wit G. K. Chesterton, who may have been satirically prophetic. You can decide. 'When men stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything. G.K. Chesterton In the 1914 novella, *The Flying Inn*, Prohibition has indirectly reached England. Here, the temperance movement isn't led by Christian reactionaries. Instead, Chesterton envisions a Progressive Islam influencing British society. As a result, alcohol sales to the poor are nearly banned, while the wealthy can obtain alcoholic drinks "under a medical certificate.” Public houses still exist, but their signs are prohibited. However, pubs can't serve wine and spirits without a sign. Consequently, two rebels travel across England with an inn sign, setting up temporary pubs in unlikely locations. The two adventurers are Patrick Dalroy, an Irish soldier, and Humphrey Pump, a former innkeeper. They carry a barrel of rum, a wheel of cheddar cheese, and are accompanied by a dog and a donkey. Their enemy is Lord Ivywood, a sinister, officious MP who enacted the oppressive law. Ivywood relentlessly pursues the good guys until he's confronted by a small crowd and forced to face the unpopularity of his laws. Do you see any similarities to Europe today? Could there be a loose link? Many confusing laws and unspoken assumptions restrict open discussion of Islam. As for signs outside English pubs, well, not yet. However, there are Sharia patrols—roaming groups of young Muslim men who insist that passers-by in Muslim areas of large cities not carry alcohol. And there is more. In some parts of towns and cities, European civilization is already in decline or fading. Demographic, religious, and cultural changes reflect this trend. One indicator is fear; many Europeans are afraid to travel in certain areas, attend large events, or criticize or mock Islam. Another sign is widespread exhaustion among Europeans. The constant fear of attacks can lead to injuries. In summer 2017, 1,500 people were injured in a panic-driven stampede at a soccer game in Turin, Italy. A firework was mistaken for a bomb, and panic quickly spread. Exhausted and defeated, many Europeans accept a slow, uncontrollable social decline. After a 2017 suicide bombing in Manchester, England, that killed girls as young as eight, a BBC host remarked, “Europe has to get used to this.” Much of Europe has been transformed in ways earlier generations would not recognize. Enclaves in Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Sweden no longer seem truly European and are not governed by European law or customs. Small sparks of freedom still shine within civil society, and democratic principles motivate many European leaders. Some intellectuals and political figures resist the spread of Islamic law and the growth of mosques. For most Europeans, Islam remains a contentious topic. Influential and political circles are very cautious about when and where they discuss it. Europeans are experiencing a decline, and this has happened before. The Black Death of the late Middle Ages, the Thirty Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the World Wars, and communism wiped out millions. Famines and crop failures also caused Europe’s populations to migrate to the United States, colonies, and other distant lands. Still, the continent’s population recovered and grew again. Today, however, Europe faces a new challenge—sub-replacement fertility levels. Since the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Europe has seen a sharp decline in birth rates. Europeans are not having enough children to keep their population stable. Their numbers are likely to be replaced by new generations of Muslims. European civilization is being tested. Christianity, central to Europe’s identity, arrived with Constantine and splintered during the Reformation. However, the church's influence began to decline in the late 19th century. Today, Christianity is increasingly being replaced by Islam, whose followers remain steadfast in their faith and traditions. Public displays of Christianity are sometimes met with disapproval. Men and women of faith, including airline flight attendants and teachers, have been reprimanded for wearing small crosses in public. In 2016, officials in Brussels canceled their Christmas tree lighting ceremony. A high school in Germany went further by forbidding teaching about the history of Christmas. Nativity scenes and Christmas caroling have been outlawed. There may already be more practicing Muslims than Christians in Britain. Tomorrow, shuttered churches will likely become museums of a lost faith or be transformed into mosques across Europe. Europe’s democratic and free-thinking traditions are under assault. Born from the Enlightenment and tested over centuries, liberalism took root and flourished. With the fall of the Soviet Union, democracy—with all its quirks and flaws—became Europe’s unifying political thread. Women, the LGBT community, religious minorities, satirists, artists, and Bohemians enjoyed their post-war freedoms. Today, these liberties are threatened, and I do not believe they will survive Islam for more than two generations. A visitor to Europe might notice parallel societies, with Muslims and non-Muslim Europeans, often called whites, living separate lives. Many Muslim women never enter the workforce, and some depend on government assistance. Some Muslim men have succeeded; many have not. The population of white Europeans is decreasing, while the number of Muslims is increasing. The French critic Renaud Camus called this “The Great Replacement.” And the migrants keep coming. Many arrive from Mesopotamia, cross the Mediterranean, and head north. Europe Today In several European cities, a feeling of invasion persists. Using rhetoric and imagery of the Blitz, British leaders vowed to create new “rings of steel” to safeguard tourist sites and pedestrians in London. Bollards have appeared like mushrooms around London’s attractions. In Manchester, neighborhoods were sealed off as bomb squads and police searched homes for explosives after a devastating suicide attack at a rock concert. Those who aid the injured can become victims themselves. Running toward the cries of the dying, Australian nurse Kristy Boden was killed by Islamists, who cut her throat on London Bridge. Europeans seek protection, and those responsible for defending European nations are prime targets. In Scotland, cadets were advised not to wear their uniforms in public. Parents of future soldiers were told that boys and girls should “cover up their uniform when traveling to and from cadet activities." Across Europe, military personnel exercise caution when wearing their uniforms. Men used their cars to run over pedestrians and then stab survivors in the chest or other vital organs. In current British street slang, it is called “getting stabby.” Khalid Masood, who knifed a London police officer to death near Westminster Bridge in 2017, earlier joked that stabbing was “like playing drums on your back with two knives.” A few weeks later, pedestrians on London Bridge had their throats cut. There have been stabbing frenzies on the Continent and in Israel in recent years, and they are likely to continue. The Islamic State, or ISIS, singled out crowded London streets as “ideal targets,” naming Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus as venues to “flatten” unbelievers under trucks. It struck hard in Manchester at a soft-rock concert that drew thousands of teenage girls. Many were killed and injured when a British-born Muslim detonated himself. By mid-2017, British police were making terror-related arrests “on a near daily basis.” Non-Muslims walk carefully in Muslim neighborhoods of European cities, which have “no-go” zones. Sharia patrols oversee their behavior. Roving enforcers of Islamic virtue judge whether a woman’s clothing is too revealing, if pedestrians are allowed to openly show affection, or if a blind person can walk safely with his guide dog. Non-Muslims also watch what they eat there. In Denmark, a young couple was assaulted in a pizzeria for eating ham. The police described the attacker as “of an ethnic origin other than Danish.” In Sweden, waving bacon in front of a Muslim in a café might be illegal. Police charged a man with swinging a slice too provocatively while grinning at a veiled woman. The charge was “incitement to racial hatred.” Europeans live in fear. Many French people worry about a constant threat of becoming the next terror victim. Where could it happen? Streets, homes, cafes, and clubs are all possible targets. In response, France has increased its national security measures, changing the country's appearance. Police patrol the streets and popular locations. There is a “dog army” of four-legged detectors for parcels and vehicles. In resort areas, soldiers in body armor, armed and vigilant, patrol southern beaches next to bikini-clad young women. Children, like their parents, prepare for potential Muslim attacks. Kindergarteners are trained to protect themselves from attackers. A teacher warned that a ‘big bad wolf’ was prowling the school and that all children must freeze and stay silent. French intellectuals have introduced a new literary genre to analyze these changes. Many older citizens miss the “Glorious Thirty,” the 30 years from the end of World War II to the oil crisis and the start of Eurabia. A common
