Islamism is a most clear and determined attack on our civilisation, and this must be recognised, not evaded.
Its adherents declaredly hate freedom, democracy, women’s rights, Judaism and Christianity. They entirely deny the rights of anyone (not least fellow Muslims) who do not share their views. They recognise no law except sharia.
Out of the disorder of Iraq and Syria, they have forged a sharia-ruled entity which they call Islamic State – a showcase for all to see of their bloody idea of God-ruled civilisation.
And lest anyone shrug this off by saying such a statelet cannot long survive, remember that several Islamic nations which practice notable, if less fanatical, brutality and intolerance are powerful in the world – Iran, Saudi Arabia, even Pakistan, where blasphemy is a capital offence. In large parts of Africa, organisations such as Boko Haram are trying to murder Christians and take power.
Islamists cannot take power directly in Europe in the near future, because they have not got the numbers.
But they can and do – in a way almost unimaginable only 20 years ago – kill and terrify. They can also, through mass immigration of Muslims, destablise us, even though the great majority of those Muslims have no desire to kill their hosts.
This is well understood by the anti-Western President Erdogan of Turkey, who has now, thanks to Angela Merkel’s immigration policy, been given control of much of the migrant flow into Europe.
The effect of the Islamist presence in the West – attacks on free speech, radicalisation in schools, forcing more women to cover their faces, let alone jihadist violence – is wholly bad.
It is a civilisational question to work out how to deal with it. We need a firmer idea of what our Western civilisation is. The murder of Fr Hamel should surely be a reminder.
First, our way of life is founded on civil peace. An aged man performing the most sacred rite of his religion of love is a poignant symbol of that peace. His murder is an atrocious violation of it.
Second, our civilisation has Christian roots. Obviously it is true that many modern Westerners are not Christians. It is also true that Christians have, in the past, killed others and one another with shocking glee.
But it is not possible to understand or uphold European or American ideas of law, liberty, government, education, family, morality or culture without tracing their relation to the life and teachings of Jesus.
The old word Christendom, though often disgraced by things done in its name, has reality. As a post-Vatican II ecumenical Christian, I have no difficulty in recognising and respecting Islam as a shared monotheism; but, as a beneficiary of Western civilisation, I feel deeply grateful that Charles Martel won the battle of Tours against the invading Islamic army in 732.
Our way of life is partly founded on the fact that we repelled Islamic incursions for many centuries. And although I may accept that Saladin was a chivalrous prince and Muslim Spain was a lot more tolerant than the Catholic reconquista, I am entitled not to want my early-morning sleep disturbed by the muezzin and our children made to learn the Koran.
I am not being “Islamophobic”: I just want to maintain our historic amalgam of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem, our civilisation based on the Bible and the Enlightenment and the tense, but productive conversation between the two.
The threat from Islamist extremism to all of this is as plain as a pikestaff – or rather, a scimitar.
So we urgently need decent, moderate leaders who recognise this danger and can proudly retell the story of our civilisation.
Otherwise, we get unpleasant, immoderate leaders who do it in their own, wrong way. In Britain, David Cameron was exceptionally outspoken on the subject, and has been under-praised for his clarity. He called the battle against Islamist extremism, violent and non-violent, “the generational struggle of our time”.
We do not yet know what the cautious Mrs May, the vicar’s daughter, will have to say.
Islamism is an attack on our civilisation ? this must be recognised, not evaded[at]