OpEd: Western Countries Slowly Giving Way to Islamic Populations

By Steve Kramer

KFAR SABA, Israel — “Gradually and then suddenly.” That quote from Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises aptly describes the retreat of many Western countries from Western embedded values, which have distinguished civilized states from non-democratic states. How could countries that thrived on those values (derived from Ancient Greece and the Bible) eschew them so quickly in the first decades of the 21st century? Did anyone see this coming: rewarding an infamous terrorist organization and blaming its democratic victim?

Yes, some prescient historians and social commentators noticed the trend of the jihadist strategy to replace Western values with Islamic ones in Western democratic countries decades ago. Included in this distinguished group are Bat Ye’or, and Douglas Murray. I first encountered Bat Ye’or’s seminal work “Eurabia” (which Wikipedia calls a conspiracy theory!) years ago. Today, Douglas Murray, a public intellectual of the highest rank, is all over the internet clearly explaining the undermining of Western values. Read his book, The Strange Death of Europe.

Too many Western countries have shown their retreat from Western values by proclaiming their recognition of the State of Palestine (whatever that will be).  which would be run by heinous Hamas (or other) jihadists. Norway and Ireland, plus Spain, were the first to submit after October 7, 2023 to the Muslim contingent of their country’s population, for fear of losing their political power. The newest to reward the terrorists include France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Portugal. Three quarters of the members of the United Nations have now recognized the State of Palestine.

NOTE: Who are jihadists?

Jihadists believe a global Islamic caliphate (Muslim rule), with a system of sharia (Islamic law) in place, must be restored in formerly held Muslim lands, such as Spain, and in all non-Muslim countries, such as France.

France’s failed President Emmanuel Macron led the charge against Israel. Could he have been currying favor with the Muslims in France to reverse his fourth lack-of-confidence vote this year? The UK’s Prime Minister  Keir Starmer recently demanded of Israel that, unless it met certain conditions, the UK would recognize “Palestine,” which it just did. Were there any conditions demanded of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority (PA) before recognition? No. Outrageously, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed regret that his country lacked the nuclear means to punish and deter Israel in its existential battle with jihadism.

These anti-Israel states did not even have the decency to require Hamas to release all the hostages before rewarding them with a state. Actually, Hamas doesn’t even want a state. It just wants to remove Israel from blocking the Caliphate (to elevate Islam) which the jihadists are slowly but surely building around the world. As for the PA, nothing was required of it either. All the conditions are put on Israel, which is fighting to protect Western values. Jihadism and lack of democracy are given a free ride.

Today, Israel is being treated as a pariah state not only by its enemies, but also by Western democracies which seem to not mind if Israel were overrun by the jihadists. (Israel is, after all, a nuisance. No?) Those nations are like “deer caught in the headlights” of their nascent Muslim populations, which aim to replace the democratic leadership and install Shariah law, dictated by the Koran and Hadith. Jihad is the means of conquest over the West. Israel is the front line against it, fortified by its Western, Bible-inspired values and its millennia-long will to resist extinction.

The historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel goes back approximately 4,000 years, since Abraham entered Canaan and purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. At the time when Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, circa 1,400 BCE, its inhabitants were the remnants of the Canaanite tribes: Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Over centuries they all died out or were assimilated into the predominant culture. The Canaanites had arrived in the coastal regions of the Land of Israel about the same time as the Israelites.

Arabs did not come in any great numbers until the Muslim conquests in Arabia and the Levant (the region along the eastern Mediterranean shores, roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and certain adjacent areas). This conquest immediately followed the death of Mohammed in 632 CE and extended into Europe and especially the Iberian Peninsula.

What constitutes a “state” according to international law? States must have a defined territory, a permanent population, an effective government, and international recognition. The “State of Palestine that 3/4 of UN members have recognized does not have a defined territory nor does it have an effective government. So all those states that have “recognized” the State of Palestine have flouted international law, ostensibly to punish Israel for defending itself.

It’s an open question whether European states can stop the takeover of their democratic governments. “It’s been predicted that by 2085, thirteen European countries will have majority Muslim populations, with the declining fertility rate among Christian and other non-Muslim peoples contributing to the shift. Perhaps those who would like to prevent that from happening should simply have more babies. Otherwise, expect Muslims by 2085 to outnumber non-Muslims in Cyprus, Sweden, France, Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Luxembourg, the UK, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ireland, and Lithuania, with Belgium tipped to be the EU’s first, according to Céline Pina, writing in the monthly Causeur.”

The United Nations and too many Western countries are enabling Muslim cultural imperialism and regime change just to punish Israel. Some Central European and Balkan states have fought back, resisting the Muslim immigration that has swamped Western Europe. Undoubtedly there will be some pushback by Western Europeans, Australians, and Canadians who value their culture and oppose Islamic conquest. Let’s hope that they succeed to foil the jihadis.

With that in mind, I’ll conclude with this warning from Bruce Bawer in Front Page Magazine: “…if Western governments continue to look away from the existential crisis that they – or their predecessors in office – created, this is precisely what’s going to happen: a large proportion of the [conventional/established] citizenry is going to become increasingly restive and, if not heeded, will ultimately explode.”

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Steve Kramer is an American-Israeli freelance writer based in Kfar Saba, Israel.