Month: February 2026

The big party convention of Germany’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU) has ended well for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, but may bode ill for the country as a whole.

In the election for party leadership over the weekend of February 21-22, Merz received 91.2 per cent of the vote, a better result than in 2024 when he got 89.8 per cent.

The ballot followed an hour-long speech by the conservative politician in which he urged his party members to strive for unity. He also demanded that the CDU and its junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), work together more constructively.

“We need to get out of this situation where one coalition partner makes a suggestion that the other ritualistically rejects. We both must get out of this,” Merz stated.

Crucially, he also rejected the idea of any form of co-operation with the main opposition party on the Right, the Alternative for Germany party (AfD): “I have decided with finality to seek approval for our policies exclusively in the political centre of our country. Yes, for the moment that narrows us down to a coalition with the SPD,” Merz said.

“I am fully aware that this means that the only two parties left of the democratic centre, the CDU and the SPD, are dependent on each other”, Merz added, before attacking AfD head on.

“Eighty years after the end of the Nazi dictatorship, forces are gaining strength in our country that mock the victims of the Nazi regime, admire imperialism, ridicule the principles of human dignity, the rule of law and our Constitution and want to turn back decades of social progress.

“We will not allow these people from the so-called Alternative for Germany to ruin our country. And that is why I say with full conviction: This party cannot be a partner of the CDU. This party must expect a bitter fight from the Union,” the Chancellor stated.

Merz’ speech was praised on German state TV and was seen favourably by commentators from left-wing media.

Others were more critical.

Ulf Poschardt, libertarian publisher of newspaper Welt, wrote that Merz had become “the new Angela Merkel”.

Ex-chancellor Merkel is still reviled by many on the German Right for initiating Germany’s nuclear phase-out, enabling mass immigration from Muslim countries and other deeds.

As she led the CDU to some of its greatest ballot successes, though, she is still held in high esteem by the party. That was evidenced by the 70-second applause Merkel got when she attended this weekend’s conference, her first appearance at a CDU convention since the end of her chancellorship.

“It is remarkable how Merz denounces his conservative critics who demand a little more ambition and courage as treasonous pessimists. With such a course of action, he will end up like Merkel: He will lose the hearts and minds of the ambitious bourgeoisie and come to terms with a green-red-red coalition until the country is in ruins,” Poschardt wrote.

Swiss newspaper NZZ commentator Beatrice Achterberg also wrote that Merz’ plans did not bode well for Germany: “The CDU is permanently aligning itself with an SPD that is weak, leans to the far-left in its policies and always seeks to prevent genuine welfare state reforms. […] This course frees SPD from all necessity to work constructively in government.

“If you rule out any alternative on the Right categorically, you make your left-wing coalition partner indispensable,” Achterberg concluded.

Members of AfD also reacted with sharp criticism to Merz’s speech.

AfD MP Nicole Höchst wrote on X: “Merz uses means of blame reversal and reality shifting. When political responsibility for existing problems is attributed to an opposition that does not exercise governmental power, this seems like a reinterpretation of the actual balance of power.”

Höchst accused Merz of using “enemy rhetoric” and a “manipulative reversal of guilt”.

brusselssignal

Unknown individuals are placing threatening flyers with religious warnings in the letterboxes of residents in the Wattenscheid ⁠district of Bochum. Residents are concerned, and the police are in the dark.
Petra Gehrmann found one of the leaflets in her letterbox. ‘It was threatening, it gave me an eerie feeling,’ she told broadcaster Sat.1 NRW. For the first two or three days, she was afraid that someone would set fire to her flat.
‘We will take revenge on the sinners’ or ‘As for the wicked, their dwelling place is the fire; as often as they try to escape from it, they will be driven back into it,’ the flyers read. According to the police, the passages refer to passages in the Koran. In the background, the outline of a mosque can be seen, with crowded shadows of people and blazing flames below. For Gehrmann from Wattenscheid, it is a threatening backdrop. She is not the only one who found this and other religious threatening flyers in her letterbox. The flyers were also distributed in the city centre.

Experts consider the flyers to be a real threat that is no longer a harmless expression of religious freedom. Kaan Ohron from the deradicalisation counselling centre Grüner Vogel e.V. says: ‘The nature of the flyers, the lack of a recognisable author, communication that is very strongly focused on threats and negative consequences. This is not positive advertising for one’s own beliefs, but rather intimidation – and that has nothing to do with religious freedom.’
Gehrmann is concerned: “Something may not happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but perhaps in the near future, I don’t know. There are other people who have found flyers like this in their letterboxes and who have written to me on Facebook to say that they also find it very frightening, and that they are afraid. But who put the flyers through the letterboxes? The state security service is investigating. However, as Sat.1 NRW reports, the flyers are not punishable by law. So the residents are left with a feeling of powerlessness and fear.

focus

A Scottish pediatrician has been struck off from practicing after being found guilty of sending images of his penis to a child. Dr. Thomas O’Neill worked in the Accident and Emergency department of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) in Edinburgh, Scotland.

O’Neill was found guilty of indecent communications with a 15-year-old boy at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in February of 2025, as reported by local news. The crimes spanned from November of 2019 to May of 2020, when O’Neill sent indecent messages and images to a boy who was 14-years-old at the time.

The disgraced Doctor was reportedly introduced to the child by a colleague at his work. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing was told how in November 2019, O’Neill was driving a car and asked the child, who was a passenger, how he masturbated.

O’Neill then pursued the boy through social media apps, sending vile messages to the child on WhatsApp and Snapchat, with the pedophile pediatrician sending pictures of his penis to the minor.

The predator then discussed with the boy how he was purchasing “sex toys” and later arrived at the child’s home and attempted to give him a “silicone device.”

Local reports describe how the boy attempted to protect himself by “blocking” the doctor on social media, but O’Neill was unrelenting and made fake profiles with male and female names in attempts to reengage the child in conversation. One fake male username was used as a disguise to sexually interrogate the boy. While using the account, O’Neill proceeded to ask the minor if he was gay, and then sent him photos of his penis and asked him if he recognized it.

Despite being found guilty of the appalling crime, O’Neill avoided a custodial sentence entirely and was given 18 months community service during a sentencing hearing in March of 2025.

This week, O’Neill, 37, was found to be impaired and his license to practice was erased during a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing. Upon hearing of O’Neill’s crimes, the Tribunal decided to ban Thomas O’Neill from working in his profession and remove him from the medical register. The Tribunal made his name known due to public interest and safety and the“need to maintain the reputation of the profession as a whole.”

Prior to being found guilty of indecent communications, O’Neill was active as an advocate for LGBT equality in healthcare, with a particular emphasis on “LGBT+ youth.”

O’Neill was responsible for “equalities and diversity for NHS Lothian’s Medical Education Directorate “ and was described as “[working] to help clinicians and supervisors better support LGBTQ+ students and trainees, through his role as associate faculty of the Clinical Educator Programme.”

It looks like he did… https://t.co/hrHXtODtCj pic.twitter.com/IMsev1JjLC

— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) February 21, 2026

Additionally, O’Neill was employed previously as a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh where he was a prominent face in their Youtube videos themed around supporting LGBT staff. The videos have now been deleted after the Daily Record made contact with the University. Edinburgh declined to comment to the tabloid, and NHS Lothian declined to comment on the individual member of staff, but the paper believes that O’Neill no longer works for the Health Board.

In 2017, O’Neill co-authored a paper on the challenges “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) young people” face in accessing health care. The paper described two case scenarios, one involving a 13-year-old gay boy and another involving a 14-year-old boy who identified as a “girl,” and challenged pediatricians on how to better accommodate such patients in their practices.

In 2021, O’Neill was a key speaker at the University of Edinburgh’s LGBT+ History Month event on “creating equity in healthcare for LGBT+ people.” A video featuring his speech has since been scrubbed from Open Educational Resources.

reduxx

Officers from London’s Metropolitan Police were reportedly told to provide security for a party for then-Prince Andrew at convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s New York property.

According to recently released emails by the United States Depart of Justice, two Scotland Yard royal protection officers were told by Epstein’s staff to protect the door of his Manhattan townhouse in 2010 during a party held in honour of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the BBC reported.

The star-studded event also reportedly included American film director Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn, comedian Chelsea Handler, talk show host Charlie Rose, and news anchors Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos. Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger was also invited but could not attend.

The Times of London noted that “the suggestion that Met officers in effect acted as bouncers for the convicted paedophile will be acutely embarrassing for Britain’s biggest police force, which has failed for many years to charge anyone in connection with the Epstein scandal.”

The disclosure comes after it was reported that Andrew’s personal bodyguards were put up for over a week in the Epstein mansion during the 2010 trip to New York and were even provided with the security code to the building. This comes despite Andrew previously claiming in 2019 that he had only travelled to New York to “cut ties” with Epstein after his conviction for child prostitution.

On Friday, the Met said that it will be contacting all of Andrew’s former bodyguards to determine whether they witnessed any wrongdoing, saying: “They have been asked to consider carefully whether anything they saw or heard … may be relevant to our ongoing reviews.”

Meanwhile, police searches continued on Sunday at Andrew’s former home in Windsor in the wake of his sensational arrest on Thursday, which marked the first arrest of a senior member of the Royal Family in nearly 400 years, since the arrest of King Charles I in 1647.

Although the Met previously decided in 2021 not to charge Andrew over allegations of rape from alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, then-Prince Andrew reportedly reached a financial settlement of £12 million to Giuffre the following year, without admitting guilt.

Andrew’s arrest this week was seemingly unrelated to any allegations of sexual misconduct and is being led by another force, the Thames Valley Police. Andrew was arrested at the Royal Sandringham estate in Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office, amid allegations that he passed sensitive British government information to Epstein while serving as British trade envoy.

This has sparked calls for a separate parliamentary investigation, including from former security minister Tom Tugendhat, who told the Sun on Sunday: “This goes beyond what a court could reasonably consider… Parliament must consider what it means for the country. If the worst is proved, do we need to revisit treason laws written 700 years ago?”

Additionally, the Labour government, which is grappling with its own Epstein scandal and police investigation into Prime Minister Starmer’s former ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, who was also alleged to have passed state secrets to the New York financier, is reportedly planning to introduce legislation to remove Andrew from the line of succession.

breitbart

Every spring, usually around 40 days before Easter, a highly predictable spectacle unfolds across the Swedish media landscape. As the days grow longer, our state broadcasters and major newspapers suddenly discover the profound virtues of religious asceticism, devoting themselves to what seems to be an ancient European tradition. Journalists who normally scoff at anything resembling traditional piety will dedicate pages to the physical and spiritual benefits of abstaining from food and pleasures. They offer helpful guides, respectful interviews, and glowing editorials praising the dedication required to fast. They are, of course, talking about Ramadan.

It is a fascinating paradox to observe in a country that prides itself on having liberated itself from the divine. For generations, the political and cultural elites have systematically dismantled our Christian heritage. They have relegated faith to the absolute margins of society, treating it as an embarrassing relic of an ignorant past. Openly being a devout Christian in the public sphere is to ask for ridicule, and the establishment has worked tirelessly to build a society completely devoid of religious influence. Yet, when a foreign religious practice takes center stage, this same secular elite displays a remarkable level of reverence and accommodation.

What makes this sudden infatuation so revealing is the absolute amnesia regarding our own traditions. Europe already possesses an ancient, rigorous, and profoundly beautiful season of fasting. It is a period that shaped the rhythm of our ancestors’ lives, built our cultural calendar, and formed the spiritual backbone of Western civilization. Long before we became an international experiment in radical secularism, the North was thoroughly Catholic. The Lenten fast was a natural part of every Northerner’s life; it was a physical and spiritual preparation for the Resurrection. It was a time of penance, almsgiving, and intense prayer.

Today, the very concept of this Christian fast is entirely alien to the average citizen. We have traded a demanding but life-giving faith for spiritually barren consumerism and the cult around a warlord from Mecca. The average Swede knows more about the dietary restrictions of the Islamic holy month than they do about the meaning of Ash Wednesday and the ancient practices of their forefathers.

The most embarrassing example might be our own prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, who on his social media account wrote, “Ramadan Mubarak, we say to all Swedish Muslims as the fast begins. Wishing everyone a wonderful time together with family and friends and time for reflection,” accompanied by an Islamic-themed greeting card. I would consider forgiving Kristersson, since I see the point in trying to be respectful to the traditions of his citizens, but the problem is that not a single word has been dedicated to the Christians in our country who started Lent this Wednesday, just as our Swedish ancestors did a thousand years before us. And my thoughts go to the young man who contacted me this week; he is from a Muslim family and is secretly converting to Christianity, and he desperately wants to join our pilgrimages but is afraid of the consequences he might face. What goes through the mind of this brave young man when he sees the leader of our country celebrate the same religion that wants to destroy him? How can it be anything other than betrayal?

Why is the establishment so eager to celebrate the fasting of others while treating the Christian equivalent with silent contempt? The answer lies in a deep-seated cultural self-hatred. To acknowledge Lent is to acknowledge the Christian foundation of Europe. It forces a confrontation with the history our modern institutions have spent decades trying to erase. By celebrating a foreign tradition, the secular media can enjoy a superficial sense of spirituality and virtue-signaling tolerance without ever having to submit to the moral demands of their own abandoned faith. They can praise the discipline of newcomers while continuing to view the discipline of their own forefathers as oppressive.

But the modern human heart cannot survive on secularism alone. The longing for the sacred, for sacrifice, and for meaning cannot be legislated away. People instinctively know that endless consumption leaves the soul empty. They crave discipline. They crave a higher purpose. When secular Europeans see the devotion of others, they feel a subconscious pang of jealousy for what they themselves have lost. They recognize a dedication that is entirely absent in their own relativistic worldview. And now they can either choose to go the Christian route or the Islamic route. The problem is, however, that they are bombarded with the latter, and now, a decisive time lies ahead for Sweden and the rest of Europe. But I have never seen the church so full as I did this Ash Wednesday; the people are longing for something more, and a glimpse of hope still remains that we might discover our true roots.

The solution is not to adopt the newcomers’ customs of the Middle East or to pretend that Islamic traditions can fill the void in the European soul. The solution is to dig where we stand. We must reacquaint ourselves with the ashes. We must remember the solemn words spoken by the priest this Ash Wednesday, ‘’Repent, and believe in the Gospel,’’ while reminding us that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

The Christian fast is a powerful antidote to the poison of modern indifference. It cuts through the noise of the contemporary world. It strips away our comforts and forces us to confront our own weaknesses, reminding us of our total reliance on Christ. Fasting is not only about diet; fasting is a weapon against our own pride and a way to unite our small sufferings with the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.

It is time for Europeans to stop looking outward for spiritual fulfillment and start looking at the wonderful treasures that have been hidden from us. They lie so close to us that we must only scrape the surface. We do not need to invent new rituals or borrow from other continents to find meaning. The treasury of the Church is full, waiting only for us to open it. Reclaiming the Lenten fast is a necessary step in reclaiming our true identity. It is a rebellion against the emptiness of the modern age. We must stop apologizing for our history and instead boldly live out the faith that built our civilization. We do not need Islam; we have something much better.

europeanconservative

Hollywood actor and “Reagan” biopic star Dennis Quaid unleashed a blistering critique of the entertainment industry’s radical political transformation, declaring that the once-open creative culture has been overtaken by far-left orthodoxy that now punishes dissenting viewpoints.

During an interview with Pastor Greg Laurie, the 71-year-old actor didn’t mince words about how dramatically the culture in Tinseltown has shifted in recent years.

According to Quaid, opinions that would have once been considered moderate or mainstream are now labeled “extreme” or controversial, the New York Post reported.

The news outlet reported:

“The Things have gone so extremely, so far left right now,” Laurie said during his conversation with Quaid.

“I saw a podcast — it was Bill Maher and Dana Carvey, and I’m forgetting the other guy’s name — but anyway, I think it was Dana Carvey said, ‘I’ve told my friends in Hollywood I’m a Clinton Democrat, and some of them are calling me a Nazi now.’”

Quaid said that “you can’t do that,” and compared being a Clinton Democrat to being “a neo-con, on the right side or whatever. What used to be, you can’t be anymore.”

The actor then described himself as a “common-sense independent,” although he said he tends to “lean more conservative in my head.”

“I’m just for common sense, is really what I am,” Quaid said.

Later in the podcast, Laurie asked Quaid about spending time with President Donald Trump.

He called Trump “very surprisingly approachable and very funny, and really genuine. He wouldn’t be president if he wasn’t genuine, because the people who voted for him, they know that he has their best interest at heart.”

In a separate sit-down a year ago with entrepreneur and podcast host Patrick Bet-David, Quaid offered a revealing behind-the-scenes look at why he ultimately chose to leave Los Angeles altogether.

Dennis Quaid:
“L.A. has been very, very good to me, but it’s changed so much.”

When asked what drove the change, Quaid described an environment no longer defined by open creative exchange — but by ideological conformity and professional intimidation.

Dennis Quaid:
“It’s not the place that I was there. I don’t feel like an exchange of ideas. It’s being politically correct all the time, and it’s kind of like a lot of fear… And that’s why I moved to Nashville — to get back into the center of the country and just feel more at home there.”

Quaid went on to argue that Hollywood’s identity has undergone a fundamental inversion over the past several decades.

Dennis Quaid:
“Everything is turned upside down… It used to be in Hollywood to be a rebel, to be an outsider — not the establishment. That was what was exciting in the ‘70s. Now… to be left is basically the status quo and to be politically correct.”

According to Quaid, the shift has been accompanied by an unmistakable chilling effect on speech — especially during the COVID era.

Dennis Quaid:
“Agencies, publicists, studios were telling me, ‘Don’t say anything about politics or the way you feel… because you could lose your job.’ At least that was the subliminal message.”

Trending: Mike Pence Just Reminded the MAGA Movement What a Dirty Traitor He Really Is

At the same time, he noted, public political advocacy appeared to be welcomed, but only when it aligned with one ideological direction.

“As long as you were talking about Biden or endorsing a Democrat, you were fine. But if you were endorsing a Republican or Trump… they don’t even want you.”

Quaid also reflected on what he sees as a broader realignment in American political identity — including which party now represents everyday working-class voters.

“It used to be the Republican Party was the party of the rich fat cats… Now the corporations are with the Democrats and the regular people are with the Republicans.”

Still, the actor stressed that ideological diversity — not enforced consensus — is essential for a functioning republic.

Dennis Quaid:
“Don’t be afraid to speak up just because it’s awkward… Even if you’re a Democrat in a room full of Republicans — we need to start talking and arguing with each other about the issues.”

Quaid concluded by lamenting the disappearance of the bipartisan overlap that once characterized American politics.

“You had liberal Republicans and you had conservative Democrats… Now it’s just black and white — you’ve got to be on this side or that — and nothing gets done.”

thegatewaypundit

A horrific act of violence shook the Remberg district of Hagen on Saturday evening. A 35-year-old Syrian woman was the victim of a brutal attack on Eickertstraße. The mother of five suffered at least 15 stab wounds and cuts. She died in hospital shortly after the attack. The suspect is her partner (41).

Witnesses called the police and emergency services at around 10.30 p.m. on Saturday evening and reported an injured woman. Several emergency vehicles were dispatched immediately. They found the mother lying unconscious on the road between two parked cars. The 35-year-old was taken to hospital while undergoing resuscitation. According to the BILD newspaper, she suffered injuries to her face, neck, chest, back and both arms.

According to the police, witnesses reported seeing a man fleeing the scene on foot. Investigators in Hagen (North Rhine-Westphalia) immediately began searching for the fugitive. A police dog was also deployed. ‘The officers arrested a 41-year-old suspect at a bus stop on Feithstraße and took him into custody,’ said police spokesman Tim Sendler. ‘He is the partner of the 35-year-old woman.’ The man, who is also Syrian, had a knife with him, which police believe could be the murder weapon. An arrest warrant for manslaughter was issued against the 41-year-old.
Residents told BILD that they had heard screams late in the evening and rushed to the window. They said they saw a man chasing the woman, pushing her to the ground and then stabbing her. According to BILD information, the Syrian man may have been under the influence of drugs. A blood sample was taken from him. Andreas Trode, the suspect’s lawyer, told BILD: ‘My client remained silent before the magistrate. We are waiting to see the files.’

According to initial investigations by the homicide squad, the couple had five children together. ‘They were found safe and sound by investigators and handed over to the youth welfare office,’ according to a statement by the police and public prosecutor’s office.

According to information obtained by BILD, the woman had wanted to separate from her partner. The exact circumstances surrounding the femicide are still unclear, and investigations are ongoing. The crime scene was cordoned off over a wide area in the evening, and the Technical Relief Service illuminated the area for forensic evidence collection. Numerous blood-soaked items of clothing were found on the street. The 35-year-old’s body is to be autopsied today, Sunday.

BILD.de

This is the moment a police officer defends a Christian preacher in Whitechapel and is told: ‘This is a Muslim area.’

The confrontation sees a female Met Police officer being surrounded by males and telling them: ‘In this country, we have freedom of speech.’

She continued: ‘I understand that you guys don’t want to hear it, so I would just recommend that you walk away and don’t listen to him.

‘He’s not in your home.’

The Scotland Yard officer has been widely praised for how she handled the situation, and, in some quarters, was hailed as a hero.

The situation at times threatened to boil over, with footage from the encounter in Whitechapel Road widely shared on social media.

A male clutching a microphone and Bible can be heard preaching the Gospel in the viral footage, which is believed to have happened on Monday, a day before Ramadan began.

It took place just yards from the East London Mosque, one of the largest in Western Europe, which can accommodate up to 7,000 worshippers for daily prayers.

News News News@NewsNew97351204

Douglas Murray speaks with Emma Trimble. This is a clip from our longer interview with Douglas. Click here to watch the full interview:    • Douglas Murray: Remigration, the New Right…  

by Giulio Meotti

It is not a conspiracy; it is biology applied to sociology. Childless Europe has only a glorious past and a twilight present.

“Those who have children have the future. It’s simple. There is so much uproar about the fact that there are so many Muslims. But I have to ask myself: why are there so many? Because they have children. Christians also have children, but the others have more.”

So says the Austrian cardinal (long considered papabile), Christoph Schönborn.

He focuses on the Brigittenau district, where the cardinal has lived since retiring as archbishop a year ago and where there is a very high percentage of Muslims.

In six districts of Vienna, more than 50 percent of students are Muslim. In some districts, however, this percentage is much higher.

35 percent of students in Vienna’s primary schools are Muslim. Those without religious affiliation (26 percent) are in second place, followed by Catholics (21 percent). Considering all compulsory school students, the percentage of Muslims is even higher, 39.1 percent, while 18.8 percent are Catholic.

In fact, Muslims have already overtaken Catholics.

And in the future? Just do the math, considering that Mohammed is the most common first name in Vienna.

Welcome to the imperial capital of the old Austria felix, once the most Catholic among the Catholic cities of Europe. And what applies to old Vienna, reduced to a museum inhabited by elderly people strolling in the Prater, will apply to every other metropolis in Europe prey to completed secularization and Islamization.

In the districts of Brigittenau (68.7 percent), Margareten (63.7), Favoriten (62.3), Simmering (57.7), Meidling (57.6), and Ottakring (56.1), the percentage of Muslims exceeds 50 percent, with two out of three students in Brigittenau practicing Islam.

This is precisely Schönborn’s district. Old and exhausted Europe dissolves under the weight of Islamic immigration that does not integrate, but replaces.

Two pupils out of three grow up calling Allah their God and observing Ramadan, while their once-Catholic classmates have evaporated into a generic “no confession” or a residual Christianity.

A student at a Viennese high school wanted to read a passage from the Bible in class as part of a lesson, but the teacher refused, saying it would “offend Muslims.”

It is not a conspiracy; it is biology applied to sociology. Childless Europe has only a glorious past and a twilight present.

Rod Dreher wrote:

“It is particularly disconcerting that Vienna, the ancestral capital of the Habsburgs, with current demographic trends will be majority Muslim by the end of the century. This is what happens when you stop believing you have a culture worth defending.”

Dreher is wrong: it will happen much sooner.

Krone Zeitung published striking data: “By 2046, one in three Viennese will be Muslim.”

In Vienna’s Alsergrund district, the future of Western Europe is already taking shape.

Since only 3 of the 25 students in his class still speak German, a seven-year-old first grader is trying to learn Arabic! To avoid being seen as “losers,” children fast during Ramadan.

Meanwhile, throughout Europe, the public celebration of Ramadan has become part of the landscape.

In the Netherlands, in Utrecht, police solicited invitations for iftar, the evening meal Muslims eat to break the fast during Ramadan.

In Frankfurt, the city spent €75,000 on Ramadan lights.

And Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen publicly congratulated Muslims on the beginning of Ramadan, downplaying the importance of Christian Lent. Van der Bellen shared an image of a type of lantern used by Muslims to decorate streets and homes during Ramadan, with the Arabic slogan “Ramadan Kareem!” and the Austrian coat of arms, accompanied by the message:

“With the beginning of Christian Lent and Ramadan, we are reminded to pause, to be grateful and to be there for one another. I wish everyone a peaceful period in which we can grow closer together in mutual respect and active community.”

Why use a Ramadan image while speaking about Lent?

An Islamic leader in America has just said:

“Mamdani in New York was a victory for the Ummah. We were not able to conquer Vienna with the sword for 200 years and now it is 10 percent Muslim. We must expand the Muslim population in America, just as we did in Europe.”

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the imam has clearer ideas than the archbishop and Vienna’s rulers.

A few months ago I reread “The World of Yesterday” by Stefan Zweig, published after the writer’s suicide and a poignant recollection of Vienna before the Great War and Nazism. Musil, Roth, Mahler, Schönberg, Trakl… Anyone who loves civilization and culture cannot read and reread it without emotion.

What a dilemma: Europe, heir of Zweig, must choose between preserving its “world of yesterday” or yielding to an Islamic tomorrow, where twilight becomes eclipse.

And how can one not be moved thinking about what Vienna (and Europe) will be in a generation? Who will be the next Zweig?

Today’s children are tomorrow’s voters, workers, taxpayers, soldiers, and parents.

And whoever dominates the cradles, dominates the day after tomorrow.

israelnationalnews