Islamist violence will steer Europe's destiny

Visits to predominantly Muslim suburbs emerging outside nearly all northern European cities, one ‎question keeps recurring: Why have some of the richest, most educated, most secular, most ‎placid, and most homogeneous countries in the world willingly opened their doors to virtually ‎any migrant from the poorest, least modern, most religious, and least stable countries-‎

Other questions follow: Why have mostly Christian countries decided to take in mostly Muslim ‎immigrants? Why do so many establishment politicians, most notably Germany's Angela Merkel, ‎ignore and revile those who increasing worry that this immigration is permanently changing the ‎face of Europe? Why does it fall to the weaker Visegrad states of Eastern Europe to articulate a ‎patriotic rejection of this phenomenon? Where will the immigration lead to-‎

There's no single answer that applies to multiple countries; but of the many factors (such as ‎secularization) behind this historically unprecedented acceptance of alien peoples, one stands out ‎as most critical: a Western European sense of guilt.‎

To many educated Western Europeans, their civilization is less about scientific advances, ‎unprecedented levels of prosperity, and the achievement of unique human freedoms, and more ‎about colonialism, racism, and fascism. The brutal French conquest of Algeria, the uniquely evil ‎German genocide against the Jews, and the legacy of extreme nationalism cause many ‎Europeans, in the analysis of Pascal Bruckner, a French intellectual, to see themselves as "the sick ‎man of the planet," responsible for every global problem from poverty to environmental rapacity; ‎‎"the white man has sown grief and ruin wherever he has gone." Affluence implies robbery, light ‎skin manifests sinfulness.‎

Bruckner labels this the "tyranny of guilt" and I encountered some colorful expressions during ‎my recent travels of such self-hatred. A French Catholic priest expressed remorse over the record ‎of the church. A conservative German intellectual preferred Syrians and Iraqis to his fellow ‎Germans. A Swedish tour guide put down fellow Swedes and hoped he would not be perceived ‎as one.‎

Indeed, many Europeans feel their guilt makes them superior; the more they dislike themselves, ‎the more they preen -- inspiring a strange mix of self-loathing and moral superiority that, among ‎other consequence, leaves them reluctant to commit the time and money required to bear ‎children. "Europe is losing faith in itself, and birthrates have collapsed," notes Irish scientist ‎William Reville.‎

The catastrophic birth dearth underway has created an existential demographic crisis. With ‎women of the European Union bearing just 1.58 children as of 2014, the continent lacks the ‎offspring to replace itself; over time, this far-less-than-replacement rate means a precipitous ‎decline in the numbers of ethnic Portuguese, Greeks, and others. To maintain the welfare state ‎and the pension machine requires importing foreigners.‎

These two drives -- expiating guilt and replacing nonexistent children -- then combine to ‎encourage a massive influx of non-Western peoples, what the French writer Renaud Camus calls ‎‎"the great replacement." South Asians in the United Kingdom, North Africans in France, and ‎Turks in Germany, plus Somalis, Palestinians, Kurds, and Afghans all over, can claim innocence ‎of Europe's historic sins even as they offer the prospect of staffing the economy. As writer Mark Steyn puts it, "Islam is now the principal supplier of new Europeans."‎

The establishment, or what I call the 6 P's (politicians, police, prosecutors, the press, professors, ‎and priests), generally insists that everything will turn out fine: Kurds will become productive ‎workers, Somalis fine citizens, and Islamist problems will melt away.‎

That's the theory and sometimes it works. Far too often, however, Muslim immigrants remain ‎aloof from the culture of their new European home or reject it, as most clearly manifested by ‎gender relations; some violently attack non-Muslims. Far too often too, they lack the skills or ‎incentive to work hard and end up an economic liability.‎

The influx of non-integrating Muslim peoples raises the profound question whether Europe's ‎civilization of the past millennium can survive. Will England become Londonistan and France an ‎Islamic republic? The establishment castigates, dismisses, sidelines, ostracizes, suppresses, and ‎even arrests those who raise such issues, demeaning them as right-wing extremists, racists, and ‎neo-fascists.‎

Nonetheless, the prospect of Islamization prompts a growing number of Europeans to fight on ‎behalf of their traditional way of life. Leaders include intellectuals such as the late Oriana Fallaci ‎and novelist Michel Houellebecq; politicians such as Viktor Orban, the prime minister of ‎Hungary, and Geert Wilders, head of the most popular Dutch party.‎

Anti-immigration political parties typically win about 20% of the vote. And while a ‎consensus has emerged that their appeal will stay about there, perhaps reaching 30%, they ‎could well continue to grow. Opinion polls show that very substantial majorities fear Islam and ‎want to stop and even reverse the effects of immigration, especially that of Muslims. In this light, ‎Norbert Hofer recently winning 50% of the vote in Austria represents a potentially major ‎breakthrough.‎

The greatest question facing Europe is who, establishment or populace, will steer the continent's ‎future. The extent of Islamist political violence will likely decide this: a drumbeat of high-profile ‎mass-murders(such as in France since January 2015) tilts the field toward the people; its absence ‎allows the establishment to remain in charge. Ironically, then, the actions of migrants will largely ‎shape Europe's destiny.‎

Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum.