Calls for prayer resonating a few meters from cathedrals, illuminated facades for Christmas but also during Ramadan, flooded places of Palestinian flags every week … The decor is changing in several major European cities. In ten years, the number of Muslims on the old continent has increased by 16 % to 46 million believers in 2020, according to the most recent estimates of the Pew Research Center. If Christianity remains the first religion in the world, Islam is that which progresses the fastest, in particular thanks to the higher fertility rate of Muslims.
In Europe, this demographic dynamic is not without consequences. In the Brussels agglomeration, made up of an overwhelming majority of residents of foreign origin – almost 80 % according to the National Institute of Statistics of Belgium -, certain municipalities now present the characteristics of “Confiscked territories”alerts the report of the Ministry of the Interior to the Muslim Brotherhood. In Molenbeek or Saint-Josse, the control of Islamists on the population appears “Almost complete”observes Place Beauvau.
This development of political Islam is not the result of chance, says Fadila Maaroufi, director of the European Observatory of Fundamentalisms. “This is a strategic choice: Brussels is the heart of Europe, and the Islamists use it to materialize their caliphate project on a continental scale”she warns. The Belgian anthropologist already notes an “interconnection between mosques” in several countries: “We find the same imams preaching in Belgium, the Netherlands, France …”
Across the Rhine, the German government was forced to tighten the tone in the face of the growing influence of Turkish preachers.
Since 2024, the country has formed approximately one hundred officiants per year in its territory to supply its 2,500 mosques. “We need religious leaders who speak our language, know our country and defend our values”had at the time argued the Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, qualifying this initiative as“Important step for the integration and participation of Muslims in German society”.
The control of Islamists on the population is almost complete in certain cities
Not that the latter lived reclined in the shade of the minarets … In Cologne, Germany, the muezzins ring the time of prayer every Friday. The city authorized them there in 2021, following in the footsteps of around thirty German municipalities where this sound ritual, formerly marginal, settled in the heart of public space. In Düren, the mosque has broadcast these messages three times a day since the early 1990s.
The emergence of Islamist parties
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Islam also invests the ballot boxes. In 2015, two ex-fellow Labor Party, Tunahan Kuzu and Selçuk Öztürk, created Denk- “Reflect” in Dutch, ” Equal “ in Turkish. This party, accused of defending the interests of Ankara, made the acceptance of immigrants and the fight against the “Institutional racism” his business. A paid strategy since he now has three seats in Parliament and elected officials in several major cities, despite competition from Nida, a political party rooted in Rotterdam, land of immigration where 170 nationalities mix.
Faith, life, talent, prosperity and family, Nida relies on “Five pillars inspired by Muslim values”. The party found its audience at the local level in the second city in the Netherlands, in Almere and La Haye, but has not yet managed to send elected officials to the House of Representatives. Nor to the European Parliament where he had contributed to the list “Free Palestine Party” In 2024, alongside its Swedish equivalent Nyans (“Nuance”).
The former bastion of European social democracy may today be governed by a coalition of center right supported by the Democrats of Sweden, it does not escape the consequences of its unbridled migration policy since the 1980s. In particular in Malmö, in the district of Rosengard, where more than 70 % of the inhabitants are of foreign-Iraqi, Somalis, Bosnian, Palestinians. It was here that Osama Krayem, one of the authors of the Paris and Brussels attacks, grew up. Here also that violent riots broke out in September 2023 after Salwan Momika, Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam activist, burned and trampled on corans.
These autodafés have “Agitated the population for a time”recognizes Anders Hellström, professor of political science at the University of Malmö, but “The Swedes ended up boring them, even by doing it”he tempers. Not all, obviously, since Salwan Momika was shot dead in January this year, the day before his appearance in court which was to judge him to “Incituration to hatred against an ethnic group”.
British justice condemned Hamit Coskun to a fine for burning a copy of the Koran
His death led to the end of the charges against him, but one of his comrades was indeed sentenced. “Even if the intention was to criticize Islam as religion, behavior and acts have clearly exceeded the limits of a factual debate and criticism”, estimated the court. A decision “Intolerable” For Fadila Maaroufi. “It may be what is worse in this case,” she blows, castigating “These democratic states that defend Islamism”.
In early June, British justice condemned Hamit Coskun to a fine for burning a copy of the Koran before the Turkey Consulate in London while criticizing Islam. A luxury that we could soon no longer afford across the Channel … According to a government report revealed by the Times, the demonstrations denouncing acts of blasphemy multiply in the United Kingdom, under the impulse of a new generation of Islamist activists.
Pressure strategy that is starting to bear fruit. On the occasion of the month against “Islamophobia”, the deputy Tahir Ali called on the Prime Minister to prohibit “The desecration of all religious texts” in order to “Prevent acts that feed hatred”. If he did not undertake to support her, Keir Starmer did not reject this proposal either.
