WarSclerotic

The greatest threat to the West is Islam.

Look at every country where Islam is dominant and you will see a total lack of freedom and democracy. Islam and freedom are absolutely incompatible. And yet, we are importing it into our western societies, thereby endangering our own freedoms. It is time to stop this foolishness.

Take Turkey, for example. Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has never made a secret of his aim to strengthen the powers of Islam. Contrary to what some want us to believe, Turkey does not prove that Islam and democracy are compatible.

For Erdogan, democracy is merely a tool. He once compared it to a tram: “You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off.”

Today, Mr Erdogan is stepping off.

The repercussions are felt not only in Turkey, but also in European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, where large Turkish immigrant communities act as the fifth column of intolerance.

Indeed, the Turkish President not only oppresses free speech at home. He has embarked on a crusade to oppress it in Europe as well. And the large groups of Turkish immigrants in Western European countries are his henchmen.

Last month, the Turkish President demanded criminal prosecution of German comedian Jan Böhmermann. The latter had ridiculed Erdogan with a critical poem on German television.

German Turks began to threaten Böhmermann to such degree that he had to request police protection and go into hiding. At the same time, the German authorities started criminal proceedings against the comedian, based on a 19^th century German penal law which forbids insulting the representatives of foreign states.

The criminal proceedings were started with the explicit consent of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, according to Böhmermann, has “served me for tea to a despot.”

Meanwhile, Erdogan’s appetite is far from over. This week, he demanded a German court to stop Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of the Springer publishing company, from defending the comedian.

Fear of violent Turkish immigrants also forced a hamburger restaurant in Cologne to shut down. Its owner, Jörg Tiemann, had put a burger with goat cheese on the menu, calling it “the Erdogan burger.” Erdogan supporters immediately responded with threats against owner and staff, forcing the restaurant to close its doors.

Then, there is the case of Ebru Umar, a Dutch journalist of Turkish descent. Four weeks ago, she wrote a column criticizing the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam. Following the Böhmermann incident, the Consulate had called on Dutch Turks to report incidents of “insults” against Erdogan in The Netherlands.

One week later, while on holiday in the Turkish seaside resort Kusadasi, Umar was arrested and only released on condition that she not leave Turkey. On Facebook and Twitter, hundreds of Dutch Turks openly rejoiced in her arrest.

Her home in Amsterdam was broken into and vandalized.When walking the streets of Kusadasi, Umar was threatened on several occasions by Dutch Turks who had gone looking for her. “We will know where to find you when you return to the Netherlands,” they said. “You will get what you deserve.”

Last Tuesday, after three weeks, the Erdogan regime finally allowed Umar to return to the Netherlands.

Many of those threatening people in the West are third or even fourth generation immigrants to our countries. This proves that – barring a few exceptions – the integration and assimilation of Islamic immigrants into our Western society has failed.

Many of the Islamic newcomers are simply incapable of adopting our values. Indeed, they are a danger to these values.

We must protect these values. And one of the first things to do is to sever our links with regimes promoting Islam. These regimes cannot be our friends; they are dangerous.

It is an outrage that Turkey is still a member of NATO. The sooner we get rid of this Trojan Horse within our Western alliance, the better. We should dump Turkey.

Instead of doing this, however, our current Western leaders are welcoming Turkey.

Next June, the European Union wants to allow visa free travel for Turks. For decades, the EU elites have been promoting Turkish EU membership, eagerly backed by President Barack Obama and by Hillary Clinton, who has even said that she is “strongly in favor of it.”

There is little doubt that if Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes the next President of the United States, she will be a cheerleader for Turkey.

Geert Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), which is currently by far the biggest party in the Dutch polls. He is the author of “Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me” (Regnery)