OPINION:
Samuel Huntington’s classic “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,” first published in 1996, may be the most insightful book written about terrorism’s war on the West because it gets to the heart of the conflict.
A Harvard professor for four decades, Mr. Huntington went from respected scholar to intellectual pariah for his controversial book. He wrote that after the Cold War, conflicts would be driven not by nation-states but rather by culture and religion.
Mr. Huntington coined the expression “Islam’s bloody borders” to explain its inability to coexist with others. To suggest that Islam was something other than the religion of peace outraged the left.
Since the publication of “The Clash of Civilizations,” we have had the World Trade Center attack (3,000 dead), the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel (1,200 dead), the war in the Gaza Strip, a continuation of mass Muslim migration to Europe and Islam’s growing influence in the United States.
London has had a Muslim mayor since 1997. New York is about to get one. In London, mobs march in the streets, howling for Jewish blood. A lawyer there was recently arrested for wearing a Star of David near a pro-Hamas rally. The bobbies called it incitement.
In Nottingham, a prominent imam called on Muslims to take up arms against “White people,” who he says are planning to wipe them out. In the month since Asrar Rashid’s violent video was posted, the authorities have taken no action.
The city of Manchester has banned Israeli fans from an upcoming soccer match after a Muslim politician threatened a riot. “We will not show them mercy,” said Ayoub Khan, a member of the British Parliament.
In Britain, they ban the targets of violence, not those inciting violence. A record 25 members of Parliament are Muslims, up from 19 in 2019.
Several German cities have canceled their traditional Christmas markets because of security concerns. On Dec. 24, 2024, a Saudi refugee drove a car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five and injuring as many as 200.
Less than two weeks later, an American convert to Islam drove a pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s Day in New Orleans, killing 15 and injuring 37.
On Nov. 4, Zohran Mamdani, who has a double-digit lead over his opponents, will likely be elected the mayor of New York. Both a Muslim and a Marxist, Mr. Mamdani has radical ties up the wazoo, including a $100,000 donation from the Hamas-aligned Council on American Islamic Relations. He was recently seen campaigning with Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who, before the 1993 World Trade Center attack, sponsored appearances at his mosque by Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind of the atrocity.
If, as mayor, Mr. Mamdani visits the Vatican, he may have a chance to use the Muslim prayer room just opened there. Pope Leo XIV is concerned about the comfort of his Muslim guests. He is less concerned about the thousands of Christians murdered by jihadis in sub-Saharan Africa each year. Since 2009, Boko Haram has slaughtered 100,000 Nigerians and burned 18,000 churches. The pope is probably too busy denouncing so-called genocide in Gaza to deal with this.
By “Islam’s bloody borders,” Mr. Huntington meant that wherever significant Muslim populations come into contact with “infidels,” conflict ensues. Almost 30 years after the publication of “The Clash of Civilizations,” our leaders are still unable or unwilling to connect the dots: to see the relationship between terrorism in Israel, strife in Britain, Europe’s growing Muslim population and the quaint customs it brings with it (such as raping infidel women), a mayoral race in New York, and Rome making obeisance to Mecca.
In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler’s greatest strength was Europe’s inability to take him seriously. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was aided by the inability of liberals to see a worldwide conspiracy. Today, militant Islam advances by the refusal of many in the West to see the big picture. It’s not just a terrorist attack here and a mayoral campaign there. It’s also a blueprint for global conquest that originated on the Arabian Peninsula 1,500 years ago.
Last week, a Gaza resident who had entered the U.S. illegally, alleged to be involved in the Oct. 7 massacre, was arrested in Lafayette, Louisiana. He was rumored to be on his way to New York to vote in its mayoral election.
Civilizations are clashing everywhere, and the West is losing.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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