Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster film “The Odyssey” has inspired legions of fans who never gave a thought to ancient Greece and its contribution to Western culture. That’s a positive outcome if reviving the canon of classical literature is important to you. Humanities majors, rejoice!
But the film also serves as an important object lesson for both classical liberalism and modern Europe, one that may be less cinematic but should not be left on the cutting room floor. The most haunting metaphor from both literary sagas, The Iliad and The Odyssey—the nifty but bloody military maneuver that guaranteed victory for the Greeks in the Trojan War—applies to another more contemporary deployment of a Trojan horse.
In Nolan’s film (though not in Homer’s text), Odysseus, the wily warrior who conjured the entire Trojan horse scheme, is left traumatized by its aftermath—the slaughter of all those Trojan men, women and children.
We’re told never to look a gift horse in the mouth. Yet, the craftsman of that ultimate equine gift, Odysseus, knew that it’s probably good practice to more heavily scrutinize a gift. One never knows whether it may contain a surprise from which the beneficiary may never recover.
Contemporary Europeans know a little something about booby-trapped gifts. The West has been led to believe for well over a century that immigration is a national gift to give and receive. The mass infusion of talent and energy, the innate quest to seek the opportunities that free nations offer, to join in the service of nation-building and self-improvement, can only enhance the collective experience of the country.
But Europeans, and perhaps soon Americans, now know that immigration can also make a country worse. If the new arrivals are not properly vetted; if their arrival was not motivated by the pursuit of happiness but rather a mission of conquest; if they flash a grateful, friendly face at the border that changes into one more fierce at the local mosque, a national threat materializes, internally, without the mess that military invasions produce.
A Trojan horse can come in many shapes and sizes, and from various possible directions.
This was bound to happen with Islam, which is both a religion and a political movement; “political” in its determination to both govern Islamic societies and conquer other lands to extend Islam’s influence. Taking an honest look at Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza and Nigeria, it seems clear that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Muslim Brotherhood and Boko Haram are much more focused on spreading violence, terror and conquest than on the spiritual health of their people. It is difficult to deny that the politics of Islam, which are military in nature, often overshadow its religious pretensions. Islam, especially as practiced by the regime occupying Iran, could not possibly be more different from the Vatican.
Indeed, the spreading of Sharia law throughout the world, especially in Western nations, is not a benign theological, hypothetical exercise. It is nothing like the study of Talmud or a faithful reading of Christian scripture. The Quran and the many hadiths clearly state that Allah is the one true God, the final word on religious authority, and the prophet Muhammad is Allah’s messenger, making him the one true prophet.
This being the 21st century with its many interfaith imperatives and mandates for religious pluralism, we are reassured by theologians that Islam’s core beliefs are not rigid articles of faith. They are, instead, mere religious exaggerations that no Muslim actually believes. After all, devout Christians don’t necessarily believe that Jesus walked on water, and most Jews attend synagogues without holding fast to the signs and wonders of Moses parting the Red Sea.
But Islam is different. The literal translation of its name is “submission.” Choosing how one practices the Islamic faith is not an option; no denominations are offering Muslims ways to be more casual about their devotion to Allah. Muslims are not like a self-identified Christian who doesn’t turn the other cheek or a practicing Jew who is wishy-washy on observing dietary laws. A religion that goes by the name “submission” insists upon the obligation to commit to Islam’s non-negotiable beliefs and doctrines.
It should be noted that, unlike other world religions, Islam is the one that has resisted any attempt at reform. So-called “moderate” Muslims share the same beliefs as the mu’min—the most devout. And there aren’t any real “reformist” Muslims. “Submission” means what it says: no loopholes, no modifications on the menu. Catholics took a hard look at the New Testament and the Gospels at the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), which took place over three years in the early 1960s, resulting in improved relations with other faiths and a willingness to adapt to the modern world.
Judaism has centuries of experience re-evaluating its understanding of Torah. It also has different denominations, the largest being Reform Judaism. Islam has never undergone such an internal audit.
Yet most Muslims believe that “submission” must also apply to “infidels” because, as the world’s youngest religion, Islam represents the final word, one that must supersede all others. No society can be expected to accept religion on such uncompromising terms.
But there is something else that tells you everything you need to know: Muhammad is a prophet with a side hustle. The prophet may be his public persona, but his preferred occupation is warlord and supreme commander of the armies of Islam.
Imagine if Jesus Christ and Moses were also generals. What would that say about Christianity and Judaism, and the entire Judeo-Christian framework? Are they organized around theological imperatives or military doctrines?
The presumption is and should always be that prophets never have blood on their hands. But that is not true in the Islamic faith.
Muhammad appointed no one else to lead Muslims into battle to extend Islam’s influence over other nations. When the Quran speaks of caliphates and the warfare required to create them, it isn’t kidding around:
- “When the sacred months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them.” (Quran, Sura 9:5)
- “Fight those who do not believe in Allah.” (9:29)
- “Fight them until there is no more persecution and religion is devoted entirely to Allah.” (8:39)
- “The Last Hour would not come unless the Muslims fight against the Jews, and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide behind a stone or a tree. The stone or tree would say: ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.’” (Sahih Muslim 2922)
Nowhere in either the Old or New Testaments can such language be found.
When most people think about Islam’s war against the West, they think of acts of terrorism committed by Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis: 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing, the London tube and Madrid train bombings, the Bali bombings, the Mumbai attacks, the shootings and suicide bombings during a rock concert at the Bataclan in France and the terrorist shooting attack at Charlie Hebdo magazine and siege at the Hypercacher market, both in Paris. There are many others. And I am leaving out Israel and its forever-to-be-mourned morning nightmare on Oct. 7.
But long before there was terrorism, there were conventional wars launched largely by invading Muslim armies into Europe. Terrorism is only the most contemporary iteration of Islam seeking to kill infidels and claim hegemony over Christian lands.
It goes back as far as the invasion of Spain in 711, then the Battle of Tours (also called the Battle of Poitiers) in 732. This was followed centuries later by the Crusades (1096–1291), the Siege of Malta in 1565, the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and the Great Turkish War (1683–1699). The Russo-Turkish Wars spanned the 18th and 19th centuries, followed by the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). (There are other Islamic-Christian wars I have omitted.)
Islam has been busy fighting Christians and Jews for nearly its entire existence. This is the “religion of peace”?
None of the battles listed above involved Jews or Israel. Israel didn’t become a nation until 1948. Ask the decimated Christian populations of Nigeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Bethlehem how amenable Muslims are to interfaith, multicultural relations.
We are repeatedly told that the problem Islam has with the West is solely limited to a tiny population of Jews who have reclaimed their small ancestral homeland to create the world’s only Jewish state. Then why was Islam at war with Christians during the 2,000 years that Jews lived in exile?
The problem Islam has always had with the West is Western civilization itself, which is predominantly a Christian enterprise with a little help from the Jews. Israel is not the problem but the pretext. The real target—the true trophy for Islam—is Christianity and the West. And they prove that every day, if anyone is paying attention to what has been happening throughout Europe.
Of course, they don’t teach anything about this in middle and high schools, in colleges and universities, throughout the West. The mere mention of such historical red-letter dates in which Islam made war against the West is deemed “Islamophobic.” That’s right: We now live in a world where even calling attention to the direct link between Islam and terrorism is a hate crime. In the United Kingdom, I would already be locked up for writing that sentence.
Muslims have been surfing on a multicultural, politically correct, woke wave with astonishing success. To criticize Islam is “racism,” even though Islam is a religion and not a race. To call attention to Islamic extremism is “Islamophobia,” even though terrorism, which Muslims disproportionately commit, is intentionally terrifying and should evoke the fear that gives rise to the phobia that dare not speak its name.
Surely, not all Muslims are a threat to the Western world. But there are two billion Muslims. Polling by the Pew Research Center has indicated that a majority of Muslims worldwide believe in a strict adherence to Sharia law. (In some nations, it is as high as 90%.) That means that such Muslims accept that it is permissible to rape female infidels, take Muslim child brides, torch homosexuals, kill apostates and dismember, behead or lash wives or daughters whose only crime may have been listening to music, learning to read or showing a strand of hair in public.
All of this is in service of accelerating the date of the next caliphate.
You don’t need two billion Muslims to give the West an unwanted makeover instantly. Tens of millions will do. Just look at the hundreds of Sharia courts throughout Europe, the “no-go zones,” the public calls to prayer on public streets in nation after nation, the many allowances made for Islam, the forsaking of law enforcement, all on account of either genuine fear or misguided tolerance.
There are those—former Muslims and some political analysts—who honestly wonder whether Islam is ultimately a religion. Perhaps it’s a military doctrine masquerading as a religion. Its true faith and unconcealed intentions are the creation of a global caliphate. Religion may be merely a loss leader.
This is how much damage Islamists have done to Islam. Its chief critics wonder whether it is even entitled to have religious pretensions. Are Muslims children of Allah, or are they Muhammad’s mercenary army?
The complete dismissal of Islam’s political, militaristic ambitions due to Western naiveté, paternalism, white guilt, multicultural excess and unenforced immigration laws is folly. These ambitions are a threat to democracy and liberal culture in their rejection of the separation between mosque and state, free speech, open inquiry, religious pluralism, female empowerment, homosexual rights and the rule of secular law.
Leaving aside terrorism, Muslims with Islamist inclinations are now both office holders and running for office, often under the facade of “socialism,” but caliphates, covertly, lurk behind, waiting patiently in pole position.
We have a prime example in New York City. Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor on a “socialist” platform. If you hadn’t read his previous posts and videos about Israel—“Globalize the intifada!”—you may have been completely surprised by his unrelenting focus on Israel. Immediately upon taking office, he discarded the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s now standard definition of antisemitism. That maneuver allowed violent protests outside of synagogues and incitement that has led to multiple attacks against Jewish New Yorkers.
The ostensible political agenda here does not encourage debates over public policy. It resembles the submission demanded by Islam as a fait accompli: Rich white people are all racists and “Islamophobes”; property owners must be stripped of their rights; Israel is an illegitimate state; and all Israelis deserve to die. Since Mamdani won’t denounce the slogan “Globalize the intifada!” he must wish the same fate for New York Jews, his own constituents.
Islam is not much different from the Trojan horse. Governments have failed to perform the necessary due diligence to understand the hidden intentions of uninvited guests. Men wrapped in tubular keffiyehs and women whose entire bodies, including their faces, are covered up are difficult to read.
This is a Trojan horse shaped by humanitarian gestures and misguided policy. Such benign neglect and blindness to duplicity can prove to be as lethal as cannon fire, ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons—rendering an entire continent as traumatized as Nolan’s Odysseus after the Trojan War.
Inside mosques throughout the West, terrorism is discussed and supported, even if not personally practiced. Does that mean that they are both houses of worship and strategic strongholds? Many Muslims abide by Sharia law over the law of their land. They have no interest in assimilation and do not wish their host nations well. Some would happily burn a flag and march in parades that call for jihad against Jews, Israel and the United States. Such people are not mere Manchurian Candidates but ticking time bombs that aim to implode Western nations from the inside out.
The United States may be relatively new to all this, but the signs are everywhere. Once the first American flag was torched in Dearborn, Mich., less than two years ago—followed by the Islamic ditty “Death to America!”—Islamists within the United States essentially said, “Game on!” Dearborn is the only city in America with a Muslim majority, a Muslim mayor and a city council that is comprised entirely of Muslims. No surprise: Dearborn is within the congressional district of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), known for anti-Israel sentiment.
Not long after that American flag was set aflame, Mamdani was elected to govern New York City. Islamists may soon claim several congressional seats and a place in the United States Senate. Candidates like Michigan’s Dr. Abdul El‑Sayed, who is running for a Senate seat, and aspiring congresspersons Adam Hisham Hamawy from New Jersey and Aisha Wahab from California might join incumbents Tlaib, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.).
These candidates and elected public officials are not just Muslims. They are hardcore Islamists who have cleverly leveraged our democracy against us. They have taken advantage of our open societies. They mobilized Muslim voters with a wink and deceived the rest with diversions such as “affordability” and universal healthcare. The ultimate destruction of the democratic, liberal, meritocratic order is mischievously missing from their platforms.
Islam found a more direct and less violent path than war to penetrate the core of the Western world. European nations have been stupefyingly willing to swing open their doors and throw down welcome mats that started the clock on the next caliphate.
The Greek army realized it would never be able to scale the massive wall that surrounded Troy. Muslims came to realize that in winning all those wars initiated by Islam, Europe had succeeded in creating a moat that Islam would not be able to cross unless they were invited in.
Who knew Islam could be this deceptive and ingenious? Europeans are starting to realize that the decline of their countries can partly be blamed on the massive influx of Islamists whose intentions have always been more Greek than continental.
What is to be done to stop the replacement of constitutional democracy with Sharia law? Most importantly, existing criminal and immigration laws that already exist must be enforced without fear of an “Islamophobia” charge or a ricocheting hate crime.
Raping white women, beating to death an elderly Holocaust survivor and tossing her off her balcony, and setting fire to another Holocaust survivor can’t be excused because of marijuana use or chalked up to “cultural differences.”
“Grooming gangs” and the predisposition to violence at the drop of a kufi are not acceptable behavior in civilized societies. The West should not degrade its civility simply to appease its Muslim populations.
Allowing public streets to become the setting of freewheeling pogroms or turned into neighborhoods where even the police are afraid to patrol is utterly incompatible with classical liberalism.
An honest conversation must be had with a nation’s Muslim citizens and asylum seekers: Are you committed to obeying Sharia law over the secular, constitutional law of this land? Do you really want to be here, learn the language, live in harmony with neighbors, and show mutual respect, tolerance and good citizenship? Are you willing to embrace religious pluralism, and, in the United States, become a part of the American Experiment?
If not, you don’t really belong here, and you know it. Your heart and loyalty lie elsewhere. More importantly, you are unwilling to respect the Western way of life and the liberal culture, freedoms and governance that have enabled the West to prosper since the Enlightenment.
Islam, we are afraid, has consistently been headed in the wrong direction, aiming for a rebirth of the Dark Ages, when caliphates were more common.
We see your Trojan horse for what it is, and we respectfully decline the gift.
This piece was originally published in White Rose magazine.
