Advocates of realpolitik in foreign affairs contend the best policy is the one based on a realistic assessment of the relative powers, interests and possibilities of any given situation. These same voices have been strangely quiet, however, about an emerging reality on the world stage that deserves the focused attention of thoughtful Americans — the Europe familiar to generations of Americans is passing from the world scene and is being replaced by one that shares little with this nation or its historic fundamental values and interests.

The signs of this passing are sometimes difficult to pick up but they are there and an increasing number of observers are beginning to think and comment about the phenomena. Paul Belin of the Brussels Journal notes, for example, that “Mohammed is the most popular name of new born males in Brussels, Rotterdam and other major European cities.” And no wonder, considering that:

“The number of emigrants leaving the Netherlands and Germany has already surpassed the number of immigrants moving in. One does not have to be prophetic to predict … Europe is becoming Islamic. Just consider the demographics. The number of Muslims in contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million. It is expected to double in 20 years. By 2025, one-third of all European children will be born to Muslim families.” These figures remind us that, as demographers well know, demographics are destiny.

Belin was prompted by an interview in a Dutch newspaper in which German author Henryk Broder lamented that young Europeans who value things like individual freedom should emigrate to New Zealand or Australia now because in 20 years they will not recognize Europe. French police who nightly battle Muslim youths who increasingly describe their struggle as an intifada might say Broder’s timetable is optimistic, as an average of 112 cars are burned every night in France these days, according to the London Times.

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The Islamization of Europe clearly is not occurring overnight, but it is happening and that fact has profound implications, for better or worse, for American policymakers today and in the future. As Mark Steyn puts it: “Basically the European nations are dying and the populations in them are turning into relatively hostile Muslim populations, not all of them terrorists, but all of them, almost all of those people not sympathetic to America and American interests.”

An Islamic majority in Europe would not necessarily be uniformly anti-American, but, to cite but one example, there is little doubt that it would be vastly more anti-Semitic, thus profoundly complicating American determination to ensure Israel’s survival. Among the nations of the Middle East, Israel most shares American values and must be protected, but the time is now for Americans to recognize the situation developing Europe and prepare to deal with it.