Cardinal Gerhard Müller has warned that Europe is threatened by mass migration and the growing influence of Islam.
In a German-language interview on the YouTube channel Kontrapunkt, Müller addressed the issues of mass migration, Islam, and low birth rates, which are leading to a seismic demographic shift in Europe.
While he acknowledged that Muslims who come to live in European countries have the right to practice their religion, he said that “with this mass immigration of Muslim fellow citizens from cultures foreign to all of Europe, the problem is precisely that Islam is not just a religion … but that it also always claims political power and not only influences the culture but becomes dominant within it.”
”And that can only lead to a confrontation with our Christian culture – our view of humanity, which is based on the belief that every person is created by God, that all people are equal before God, and that this must also be reflected in equality before the law,” Müller continued.
“And that’s precisely where I see the problems – problems that aren’t just on the horizon, but are in fact already here – namely, that parts of the public sphere are being taken over, or that in schools and kindergartens, even Christian children are required to observe Muslim customs during Ramadan, or that Christian children, teenagers, or adults are restricted in their normal civic lives – their Christian lives,” he stated.
“And we see this, after all, in some cities in Europe where there’s a Muslim majority: while individuals there may well be peaceful, there can also be a group, a minority, that is aggressive and then seizes power and seeks to control and manipulate everyone else according to their own ideas.”
The former prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) of the Doctrine of the Faith noted that in most Islamic countries Christians live under oppression and are often “restricted or treated as second-class citizens.”
“There are, after all, many countries with Muslim majorities, where Christians are persecuted, in some cases even by state authorities, but also by certain mafia-like gangs that resort to violence,” Müller said. “And we know that Christianity is currently the most persecuted religion worldwide, both through bloody persecution and structural discrimination.”
Müller said that the idea tied to today’s mass immigration is that “we in Europe are going to solve the world’s problems.”
He said the idea that “millions or billions of people are now coming to Europe from Asia and Africa” is “not even technically possible, in regards to the healthcare system, the school system, and the education system.”
“I don’t think there’s any direction at all here,” he continued. “We’re just letting it all run its course and thinking, ‘It’ll work out somehow.’”
“But we’re always hearing the complaints – justified complaints – from local politicians that we’re reaching the limits of what’s feasible here, that integration is no longer possible, that parallel societies are emerging. Not just a few linguistic enclaves, but [communities] with completely different cultures, behaviors, and concepts of justice.”
Müller also commented on the case of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old student murdered by a Sikh in December 2025 in Southampton, England. Nowak’s murderer, Vickrum Singh Digwa, falsely told the responding police officer that Nowak had racially abused him and that he had not been stabbed. Police believed him and handcuffed the fatally injured Nowak instead of helping him. The young man died in handcuffs shortly after; his case has caused massive controversy in the U.K. and the Western world.
“This isn’t a failure in an isolated case; rather, it serves as a prime example of how the mindset, the way of thinking, and the approach to issues of mass immigration and this ‘clash of cultures’ … are being handled incorrectly,” the German cardinal argued.
“And that the British government and Parliament, as well as European lawmakers, need to undergo a major process of conversion to the realization that this opinion, based solely on this ideology, cannot create a new and harmonious coexistence in Europe.”
Regarding the low birth rates of Europeans, Müller said that he witnessed anti-natal propaganda as a child in the 1950s and ’60s.
“It wasn’t simply a natural outcome that a married couple had one, two, or three children, but rather there was a deliberate propaganda campaign against large families, and these parents were intimidated and then marginalized,” he said.
“This isn’t just some general judgment, but stems from these personal accounts,” he added.
He noted that the Club of Rome, a globalist think-tank established in 1968, was spreading panic regarding the idea that the world was overpopulated and that “drastic measures must be taken to save the world from these masses of people.”
“Anything goes – even the killing of unborn children – and whatever else, even immoral means have been used to that end. [To them t]he end justifies the means.”
Müller stressed the need to strengthen traditional families and for fathers and mothers to live out their distinct and equally important duties.
“Family life is structured in such a way that family members don’t bother one another, but rather mutually support one another. As a woman, a mother is insatiable when it comes to her children in her feminine nature. And the father is also very important for a child’s personality development,” he stated.
Most European countries have birth rates below 1.5 children per woman, and none exceed the 2.1 rate needed for population replacement. At the same time, women from African and Middle Eastern countries living in Europe have significantly higher birth rates. In Norway, for example, Syrian immigrant women had an average fertility rate of 3.51 children in 2018, according to government data.