The Exploding Islamization of the West: A Conversation with Alexandre del Valle, Part I

Grégoire Canlorbe: What do we know, please, about the Islamization of Europe?

Alexandre del Valle: The Islamization of countries such as Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, or the Netherlands has, in my view, reached a critical threshold, perhaps even a point of no return. The reasons are at once demographic, cultural, and ideological. These recent minorities have not only reached a significant numerical weight; they also have much higher fertility rates. Above all, for the past twenty years or so, there has been not only a failure of assimilation, but a form of de-assimilation among populations that, until then, had seemed assimilated.

One of the great successes of Islamist movements appears to have been to convince much of the third generation of Muslim families to break with assimilation. Many of that generation were beginning to become more integrated than their parents or grandparents. They had begun to adopt some codes of European societies: freedom of individuals, freedom of movement, separation between religion and politics, sometimes even emotional and sexual freedom. You could see young Muslim women dating Christians, atheists, or non-Muslims.

For a number of years, though, you can see a retreat, particularly during conversations on "Islamophobia." Islamists, often with the support -- or complacency -- of many on the "left," have managed to instill in many Muslims a mentality of mistrust, sometimes verging on paranoia, leading them to believe that they are surrounded by enemies -- that the non-Muslim society is fundamentally hostile to them, and that they must therefore not join it. In what turned out to be a bestseller in France, The Strategy of Intimidation, I explained that by launching barbaric jihadist attacks -- such as Bataclan, Charlie Hebdo, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels, Berlin, or the July 14 Nice attacks -- radical Islamists in fact aim to induce hostility toward Muslims and provoke a clash between Muslims and non-Muslims, to motivate Muslims to separate from their non-Muslim environment and de-assimilate.

This strategy has been most effective. Islamic terrorism produces criticism of Islamism. The Islamists then say that the criticism is proof that they are victims of Islamophobia. Young people who were assimilated, or at least interested, are encouraged to withdraw voluntarily into an isolated Islamic community. This community then functions as a counter-society against Western society, which is perceived as harmful, decadent, "Islamophobic," or "racist." In this framework, withdrawal—whether it involves a veil, marrying only within one's religion, Muslim clothing excluded by non-Muslims from everyday life, or abstention from some democratic activities -- is then presented as a condition of survival in the face of a small minority community supposedly being oppressed by a large majority.

There is now a discourse in these Muslim communities that suggests it might be best if they separated themselves from the rest of society. The separation is being presented as a demand for protection, a right to difference, or even a right to reparations in the face of the supposedly "racist" attitude of Western society.

The discourse presents Western society as diabolically secular, anti-religious, perverse, Islamophobic, and, of course, Zionist. In this narrative, Christians are often described as the accomplices of Jews or Zionists -- a view that further reinforces the hostility toward the host society and the wish to separate from it.

Canlorbe: Is this Islamization spontaneous?

del Valle: Often it is not spontaneous. There are networks that organize Islamization – it seems, mainly of three kinds. The first network consists of Islamist movements themselves. These may be transnational organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistani Tabligh, the Barelvi or Deobandi movements, the Europe-based Turkish movement Milli Görüş, or Salafist currents. Those networks are supported by associations, foundations, mosques, Islamic centers -- and also by states.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22688/islamization-of-the-west

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