The rise of Islamism: Is Britain nearing a tipping point?

Contrary to some beliefs, Muslim and Islamist are not synonymous terms.

Muslims, as it relates to those living in Europe and America, says Times of London columnist and author Melanie Phillips, are peaceful and “absolutely fine” to live among because they “have completely signed up to Western values” in that they “appreciate the freedoms of democracy and equality of women.”

“That's indeed why they have chosen to live in the West,” says Phillips. Islamists, on the other hand, are “people who are of the view that Islam is a political project” that aims to “impose Islam on the non-Islamic and not-Islamic-enough.” Theirs “is a doctrine of religious fanaticism; they believe they have a literally sacred duty — a god-imposed duty — to convert the entire world to Islam.”

“I would compare [an Islamist] to a communist or a fascist Nazi” in that “it is their way or the highway,” says Glenn Beck.

It is Islamists, not peaceful Muslims, who have become one of the biggest obstacles currently facing the West — especially in Britain, where progressive immigration policies have drastically altered the demographics.

On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn and Melanie candidly discussed Britain’s not-so-gradual edging towards an Islamic takeover.

“One of the problems of the West,” says Phillips, “has been that it views [Islamists] like everybody else in the world.” But this is a faulty view because they’re not like everyone else, hence why Islamist “suicide bombers blow themselves to smithereens” — “ecstatic that they are doing the work of God.”

“These are people with whom you cannot negotiate,” she says.

Further, “the dominant religious authorities in the world of Islam are all committed to this jihadi outlook — this belief that the non-Islamic world has to be converted to Islam,” which is another way of saying that they’re “out to destroy the free world,” Phillips explains.

But the West has turned a blind eye to this reality — and worse, British governments, including the current Labor Party, but also the Conservative Party that preceded it, have pushed the dogmatic idea that “the West cannot assert its superiority over any other culture [because] to do so is racist, and therefore, you cannot criticize the world of Islam” because it’s “Islamophobic.”

Even when Islamist-perpetrated terrorist attacks and hate crimes occur, these governments will push the narrative that “there's nothing Islamic about [them]”; they’re just generic “extremism.”

Similar to the the United States, which sees left-wing administrations and advocacy groups partnering with the suspected terrorist organization Council on American-Islamic Relations, Britain, says Phillips, allows for “Muslim Brotherhood-funded groups” and “charities,” in which the people involved “adhere to the teachings of the foundational characters of modern-day Islamism — political Islam, jihadi Islam.” Despite pleas for the government to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, the British government has been firm in keeping it off the list of designated terrorist organizations.

Glenn is fearful that if something isn’t done to stop the growing Islamism in the West, countries like England and America could very well end up like Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the country went from “Western and open and educated” to “putting their women in burkas.”

“How close to the edge is, let’s just say England, to real civil unrest?” he asks Phillips.

“Europe in general is extremely close to being submerged by all this, and so is Britain,” she answers candidly, noting that this isn’t her opinion but what demographic projections are showing.

Hope, however, has come in the form of populist parties that have emerged in Europe as a response to the Islamic cultural takeover.

“Although the elites — the political and cultural elites — have their heads firmly turned the other direction, nevertheless we've seen the rise of so-called populist parties in Britain and Europe,” many of which represent “millions of ordinary, decent people who want to live in a place that they feel is their homeland,” Phillips says.

“They want to feel pride in their nation; they want to feel that their nation's historic values are being upheld,” she tells Glenn. These “people have felt completely abandoned and betrayed by the entire political establishment,” and that’s why “we're seeing the rise of populists.”

“I think, therefore, through the democratic process, we're going to see the election of people who are going to be much more robust,” she predicts.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

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