The Islamization of Europe and Its Warning for America

By Philip C. Johnson – August 28, 2025

For nearly two decades, my work with Global Next, a Christian leadership and cultural education organization, has immersed me in Europe’s profound transformation. I’ve witnessed rapid demographic and cultural shifts—often called “Islamization”—across the continent. From London’s vibrant streets to Athens’ ancient neighborhoods, these changes are reshaping Europe. As we launch our 18th season in Europe this September, these shifts feel more urgent than ever.

A recent podcast, “Muslims, Jews, and the West’s Self-Hatred,” aired August 18, 2025, on Peter Boghossian’s “Conversations” series, featuring philosopher Benedict Beckeld, crystallized this issue. Beckeld, a Swedish-American scholar and author of Western Self-Contempt: Oikophobia in the Decline of Civilizations (2022), sees oikophobia—Western self-hatred—as a cyclical force in declining civilizations, driving unchecked multiculturalism and immigration that foster “parallel communities.” He urges intellectual and cultural reclamation of Western pride. My observations align: Europe’s immigration policies and the U.S.’s parallel path risk undermining our cherished civilization.

Europe’s Demographic Shift: A Personal Perspective

I’ve walked London’s Tower Hamlets neighborhood, where minarets tower and Urdu signs outnumber English ones. Near the East London Mosque, it feels like a South Asian Muslim country, not the United Kingdom.

The 2021 Census reveals nearly 40% of Tower Hamlets’ residents are Muslim, with 37% of schoolchildren from Muslim backgrounds; London overall is 15% Muslim.

In Paris, an estimated 10% of the city’s population is Muslim in 2025, with suburbs like Seine-Saint-Denis hitting 20-30%; over 30% of Parisian school pupils are Muslim or of Muslim heritage, transforming classrooms with North African culture.

Brussels is stark: 15-20% of its population is Muslim, yet 52% (based on local reports) of schoolchildren are Muslim, signaling a generational shift. Areas like Molenbeek is 40% Muslim. The city has 200 Muslim associations, more than Catholic ones. 

Germany’s urban centers, like Berlin, are 10-12% Muslim, with up to 25% of public school students from Muslim backgrounds. In districts like Neukölln the Muslim population is up to 30%.

Even Athens’ Omonia district, with a smaller 5-7% Muslim population, sees 10% of schoolchildren as foreign-born or Muslim.

By contrast, the U.S., with its vast 340 million population, is just 1.1% Muslim, but that is still 3.7 million, spread out in urban pockets like New York, LA, Houston, Dallas, and Dearborn, Michigan, which has a 40% Muslim population. Europe’s higher Muslim birth rates and unchecked migration drive these enclaves, turning cities into cultural flashpoints of “Islamization.” While not yet at European levels, the U.S. is trending in this dangerous direction. 

The Problem: Oikophobia and Cultural Erosion

Oikophobia—the Western self-hatred—fuels policies creating “parallel communities.” Over 80 sharia courts operate in the UK, and no-go zones in Paris and Brussels suburbs see secular laws yield to Islamic norms like street prayers. Antisemitism, often tied to migration, has surged: attacks rose 75% in Germany, 185% in France, and 82% in the UK from 2021-2023 (ADL). 

Europol’s 2025 Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) reveals a sharp escalation in jihadist terrorism threats, with 58 terrorist attacks across 14 EU Member States in 2024—34 completed, 5 failed, and 19 foiled—resulting in 449 arrests for terrorism-related offenses. Of these, jihadist arrests dominated at 334, many involving radicalized immigrant youths, underscoring the generational shift. Over the past five years (2020-2024), jihadist arrests in the EU have averaged over 300 annually, up from 200 in 2019, with a notable rise in minors under 18 involved in plots, often linked to online ISIS propaganda and unintegrated migrant communities.

The UK’s 2024 riots, sparked by a Southport knife attack—where a British-born son of Rwandan immigrants killed three girls—were inflamed by false claims he was a Muslim asylum seeker. True, the murderer wasn’t an asylum seeker; but he did posses an al-Qaeda handbook. And he did murder three little girls. This ignited deeper frustrations: record immigration, unassimilated communities straining resources, and scandals like Rotherham’s Muslim grooming gangs (around 1,400 girls exploited, 1997-2013). Ongoing 2025 protests in Epping and Bristol reflect this discontent. 

In France, the radicalization of immigrant youth has reached alarming levels, as seen in the recent arrests of two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, of Muslim Arab origin in Paris last month. Charged on August 1 with “criminal terrorist conspiracy,” the pair was fascinated with ISIS, communicated via encrypted apps, and plotted attacks on synagogues and the Eiffel Tower while planning to travel abroad for “jihad.” This case exemplifies the broader crisis of youth radicalization in migrant-heavy suburbs like Seine-Saint-Denis, where unintegrated communities breed such threats.

The U.S., with rising Muslim immigration and sharia debates, risks echoing Europe’s path.

Why We Must Save Western Civilization

Western civilization, rooted in Athens and Rome’s philosophical and legal traditions, flourished through Christianity’s spread from Jerusalem across the Roman Empire. This faith’s emphasis—every person created in God’s image—fostered dignity, justice, and mercy, birthing the Magna Carta (1215), U.S. Constitution (1789), English Bill of Rights (1689), and French Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789). These contrast Islam’s theocratic leanings, where Pew surveys show 40-60% of European Muslims prefer sharia. Oikophobia and demographic shifts threaten Western heritage.

A Path Forward

Inspired by Beckeld’s call for cultural renewal, I propose:

Strict Immigration: Pause high-risk inflows, emulating Israel’s selectivity, or consider a temporary halt to assess integration as a whole. The United States, often called a “nation of immigrants,” was actually founded by settlers with a distinct worldview—and welcomed immigrants who aligned with its core values. But when modern immigration fosters unintegrated communities that have little in common with traditional Western values, it’s time to reassess policies.

Assimilation Mandates: Require secular (not necessarily religious) oaths to obey laws and integrate into society. Require immigrants to learn English. Provide cultural education, and deport legal immigrants advocating anti-Western ideologies like sharia supremacy.

Cultural Education: Teach Western history’s triumphs, despite flaws, to restore pride. If academic elites were honest, they would have to admit the phenomenal triumphs of Western Civilization, like the development of democratic governance in ancient Athens, the codification of Roman law, the scientific revolution sparked by figures like Newton and Galileo, the advancement of individual liberty and reason, the abolition of slavery driven by Western biblical morals, the industrial revolution’s unprecedented economic growth, and the creation of global standards for human rights. When the luxury ideologies of the elite become so enamored with every culture that is NOT Western, in the Judeo-Christian sense, then the citizens and heirs of the greatest civilization ever known will no longer know who they are, what to be proud of, and what to be thankful for.

Final Thoughts

As a Christian concerned for the eternal souls of others, your heart should yearn for all nations. True unity and harmony in this world hinge on spiritual renewal through Jesus’ redemptive love—the only path to lasting peace. Christianity cultivates unity and inherent worth, in contrast to Islam’s emphasis on submission. Europe and America face a dual crisis: demographic decline and spiritual erosion. Yet, dismantling Western culture while expecting its positive global influence to endure is futile. Without deliberate efforts to promote, protect, and preserve our culture, we risk nurturing the very forces that will ultimately undo us.