OPINION:
Our myna-bird media refer to Dutch politician Geet Wilders, who could be the next prime minister of the Netherlands, as “far right,” hard right,” an “anti-Islam firebrand” and a “Donald Trump clone.”
They missed MAGA Republican.
Mr. Wilders won a huge victory in last week’s parliamentary elections. His Party for Freedom went from 17 seats to 37 seats in the lower house — a plurality that puts Mr. Wilders in line to form the next government.
While he ran on a broad range of issues, the Dutch Donald is best known for promising to stem the tide of Muslim immigration.
He’s also pledged to move the Dutch Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Strange how so many “far right” leaders — including the newly elected president of Argentina — want to express their solidarity with the Jewish state. Someone forgot to tell them that they’re supposed to be antisemites.
Mr. Wilders joins a hardy band of immigration skeptics, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who cheered Mr. Wilders’ victory. (“The winds of change are here!”) The Alternative for Germany party, also opposed to open borders, is now in second place in polling, with 20% support. In France, Marine Le Pen waits her turn.
The Netherlands has taken in an average of 200,000 immigrants a year since 2016, most unassimilable.
The Netherlands, whose population is only 16 million, is now home to 1 million Muslims. Since the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh for exposing the treatment of women under Islam, a growing number of Dutch have concluded that the immigrants will not end up wearing wooden shoes and planting tulips.
The Dutch aren’t the only Europeans who are nervous. In France, a new mosque is opened every two weeks, and a Catholic institution is closed during the same period. In a gesture of goodwill, the grand imam of Paris has suggested that decommissioned churches be turned into mosques.
How thoughtful.
Since 2003, the number of mosques in the land of Charles Martel has grown from 1,500 to 2,400. Muslims now make up 9% of the French population. How well they’ve assimilated can be seen in the designation “no-go zones” for majority-immigrant areas around Paris where the gendarmes dare not venture.
Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, is home to 50,000 Muslims, 600 Jews and raging antisemitism. If present trends continue, it’s estimated that 30% of Sweden will be Muslim by 2050. Once a nation known for its hospitality, Sweden is now the rape capital of Europe, with three times the European Union average of registered sexual assaults.
Some think you can replace one population with another and end up with the same results.
In London, 100,000 marched, calling for Israel’s extinction. Britain’s capital has a Muslim mayor, and on Remembrance Day, police had to be deployed to protect war memorials from those who say they wish Hitler had won the Second World War.
Islam is the dominant religion of Brussels. In Spain, the number of mosques is growing by 20% a year. It’s estimated that by 2046, 1 in 3 Viennese will profess faith in Islam.
There’s more at work here than open borders.
Europeans are at the center of a demographic storm. For the EU as a whole, the fertility rate (the number of children the average woman will have in her lifetime) is only 1.4, well below the replacement level of 2.1. European Muslims have a fertility rate of 2.6.
At the root of Europe’s demographic crisis is a loss of faith. In Germany, the number of baptisms — Catholic and Protestant — went from 800 a day in 2012 to 390 a day 10 years later. It’s believed that there are more practicing Muslims than practicing Catholics in France.
The continent that once was known as Christendom has lost its religion. On Sunday morning, churches are empty except for a few old women. Empty pews lead to empty cradles.
The fall of the Roman Empire became inevitable when citizens stopped having children and fertile barbarians were allowed to settle on Roman land. Soon, the army was dominated by those dedicated to Rome’s destruction.
In 2006, the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi proclaimed: “There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe — without swords, without guns, without conquest.”
In 1683, the Ottoman siege of Vienna was lifted by Polish King Jan Sobieski, halting the last Muslim advance in Europe. Today, Mr. Wilders, Mr. Orban and their allies are standing at the gates of Vienna.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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