President Donald Trump said Saturday the U.S. military has begun clearing the Strait of Hormuz, declaring Iran’s naval and air capabilities have been wiped out.
“Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti Aircraft apparatus is nonexistent, Radar is dead,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
He added Iran’s missile and drone infrastructure has been “largely obliterated,” along with the weapons themselves, and said the country’s longtime leaders “are no longer with us.”
Trump also said Iran’s ability to threaten shipping has been neutralized.
“The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may ‘bunk’ into one of their sea mines,” he wrote, adding that “all 28 of their mine dropper boats are also lying at the bottom of the sea.”
“We’re now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World,” Trump said, listing China, Japan, South Korea, France, and Germany.
Fears of Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in recent weeks have effectively shut down traffic through the strait, a key passage for global oil supplies, disrupting energy markets.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. have surged despite most of the oil flowing through the waterway being bound for other countries.
Trump also said empty oil tankers from multiple nations are now heading to the United States “to LOAD UP with Oil.”
Creepy Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell is going down in flames.
Swalwell is currently running as a Democrat in California’s gubernatorial race.
As TGP reported earlier on Friday, The San Francisco Chronicle published a story about a woman who claimed that Democrat Eric Swalwell sexually assaulted her twice.
The woman, who worked as a staffer in Swalwell’s office for two years, told The San Francisco Chronicle that Swalwell began pursuing her just weeks after she was hired at the age of 21 in 2019.
“A woman who worked for nearly two years for Rep. Eric Swalwell, a leading candidate for California governor, said she had sexual encounters with him while he was her boss and alleged he twice sexually assaulted her when she was too intoxicated to consent,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Swalwell denied the allegations.
“These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the frontrunner for governor,” he said.
37-Year Dental Hygienist: The “Bedtime Mineral” That Reversed My Gum Disease
Have you ever wondered why the world keeps repeating the same mistakes when it comes to war and conflict?
One reason may be that we’ve stopped studying military history. When we lose touch with that past, we lose our ability to understand the present—and prepare for the future.Victor Davis Hanson believes we need to change that. In a new free ebook from the Hoover Institution, “Why We Should Study War,” he challenges the idea that military history is only about battles or strategy. Instead, he shows how it helps us understand human behavior, anticipate conflict, and recognize the price of peace.This essential collection includes Hanson’s foundational insights plus his answers to key questions about war, deterrence, and military history—diving deeper into why these lessons matter now more than ever.Here’s what’s inside: What history reveals about human nature and global conflictThe real cost of freedom—and why it’s so easily taken for granted.
Hanson’s recommendations for the most important military history books. His analysis of WWII’s enduring lessons. This isn’t just for scholars. It’s for anyone who wants to be better informed, more grounded in the past, and more thoughtful about the future.
Fill out the form below to get access to this timely resource.
The United States Postal Service is suspending employer pension contributions for workers beginning Friday, citing a looming cash shortfall, the agency announced Thursday.
The move, which affects the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), comes just weeks after the Postal Service warned Congress it could run out of cash in under a year without significant reforms, including changes to pension funding and stamp prices.
USPS emphasized that the pause will have no immediate impact on current or future retirees.
“There will not be any immediate detrimental impact to our current or future retirees if normal FERS cost payments are temporarily withheld,” Postal Service Chief Financial Officer Luke Grossmann said.
USPS has previously reported mounting losses over the years, totaling $118 billion since 2007, as volumes of its most profitable product, first-class mail, fell to their lowest levels since the late 1960s.
The financial strain was further exacerbated by global tariffs, high inflation and recent spikes in gasoline prices, along with growing competition from private carriers such as Amazon, which now delivers many of its own packages.
USPS said it typically sends the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees federal retirement accounts, about $200 million every two weeks to cover pension costs.
By suspending the payments, the agency expects to free up roughly $2.5 billion in the current fiscal year.
Internal reports reveal that President Trump personally called Prime Minister Netanyahu to request a reduction in strikes on Lebanon.
Internal reports reveal that President Trump personally called Prime Minister Netanyahu to request a reduction in strikes on Lebanon to protect the success of upcoming peace talks with Iran.
While the public narrative has focused on military dominance, a different story has been unfolding behind the scenes in Washington and Jerusalem. President Donald Trump reportedly reached out to Prime Minister Netanyahu in a direct phone call, asking him to “calm down” the strikes in Lebanon. This request was driven by a growing realization within the White House that the continued destruction of Beirut could jeopardize the high stakes peace negotiations with Iran scheduled for Saturday in Islamabad. Although the Trump administration maintains that Lebanon is not formally part of the Iran ceasefire, officials became concerned that the humanitarian and political costs of the war were becoming a liability for the President’s regional strategy.
The Diplomatic Pivot
Initially, the Trump administration gave Israel a relatively free hand in the north, with Vice President J.D. Vance and others clarifying that Hezbollah was not covered by the Iran truce. However, as the IDF continued to level the Dahiyeh district and the death toll rose, the political calculus changed. Trump’s inner circle feared that the images of destruction would not only derail the Islamabad summit but also cause domestic political damage within the United States. In response to the President’s direct pressure, Netanyahu’s tone shifted almost instantly, leading to the dramatic announcement of a new diplomatic track with the Lebanese government.
Israel has reportedly agreed to be a “helping partner” in Trump’s broader diplomatic efforts, recognizing that the U.S. wants a bridge to peace that prevents the Iranian talks from being sabotaged by the Lebanon front. Vice President Vance hinted at this shift, suggesting that the Israelis offered to exercise some restraint to ensure the U.S. negotiations succeed. This does not mean a total cessation of hostilities, but rather a tactical adjustment to align with Washington’s goals. As a result, the upcoming talks in Washington between Ambassador Yehiel Leiter and Lebanese representatives will be watched closely as a test of whether this American pressured restraint can lead to a breakthrough without sacrificing Israel’s security goals.
the success of upcoming peace talks with Iran.
While the public narrative has focused on military dominance, a different story has been unfolding behind the scenes in Washington and Jerusalem. President Donald Trump reportedly reached out to Prime Minister Netanyahu in a direct phone call, asking him to “calm down” the strikes in Lebanon. This request was driven by a growing realization within the White House that the continued destruction of Beirut could jeopardize the high stakes peace negotiations with Iran scheduled for Saturday in Islamabad. Although the Trump administration maintains that Lebanon is not formally part of the Iran ceasefire, officials became concerned that the humanitarian and political costs of the war were becoming a liability for the President’s regional strategy.
The Diplomatic Pivot
Initially, the Trump administration gave Israel a relatively free hand in the north, with Vice President J.D. Vance and others clarifying that Hezbollah was not covered by the Iran truce. However, as the IDF continued to level the Dahiyeh district and the death toll rose, the political calculus changed. Trump’s inner circle feared that the images of destruction would not only derail the Islamabad summit but also cause domestic political damage within the United States. In response to the President’s direct pressure, Netanyahu’s tone shifted almost instantly, leading to the dramatic announcement of a new diplomatic track with the Lebanese government.
Israel has reportedly agreed to be a “helping partner” in Trump’s broader diplomatic efforts, recognizing that the U.S. wants a bridge to peace that prevents the Iranian talks from being sabotaged by the Lebanon front. Vice President Vance hinted at this shift, suggesting that the Israelis offered to exercise some restraint to ensure the U.S. negotiations succeed. This does not mean a total cessation of hostilities, but rather a tactical adjustment to align with Washington’s goals. As a result, the upcoming talks in Washington between Ambassador Yehiel Leiter and Lebanese representatives will be watched closely as a test of whether this American pressured restraint can lead to a breakthrough without sacrificing Israel’s security goals.
The Pope is condemning President Trump on Iran. This from a man leading an organization that has (at various rimes) supported the impoverishment of Communism, letting horrific violent criminals escape the death penalty, pacifism towards depraved dictators, opening up the borders to anyone and everyone, and turning the other way for as long as they could get away with it when priests routinely molested young boys. I sure will listen to what the Pope has to say when he decides to moralize against America for finally fighting back after 47 years of relentless attacks by the # 1 sponsor of world terrorism.
And by the way, Pope Leo, the Iranian regime wants you beheaded and incinerated too. You might want to consider the benefit to Catholics of a world with a real America still in it.
*******
Speaking of uptight totalitarians, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has said that “everyone,” including Trump supporters, are “scared” right now — of President Trump.
Since when are leftist totalitarians frightened of anything or anyone?
What are you scared of, Ms. Warren? Freedom? Why does freedom scare you?
Why does unseating dictators who trample on rights and impair commerce and prosperity frighten you?
Why do tax cuts and deregulation frighten you?
Why does arresting and prosecuting violent people, and refusing to let violent felons into the country, terrify you?
Oh, that’s right. You’re one of those dictators. You’re afraid you might lose some of your unjustified power and unearned millions.
And where are the Trump supporters afraid of him? Name one. I interact with Trump supporters all the time. The great majority are happy with him. Some want him to go further. Their only fear is that he won’t go far enough, and monsters like you will ultimately prevail. Who are the Trump supporters afraid of Trump? Name one.
This woman, and her kind, are insane. Or lying psychopaths. My money is on the latter theory.
“You are the heirs of this land’s patriotic and honorable commanders — from Aryobarzan, Bahram Chobin, and Surena, to Babak Khorramdin, Yaqub Laith, and Maziar, to Jahanbani, Khosrowdad, and Rahimi.
How can you remain silent and inactive in the face of foreign criminal agents affiliated with the Islamic Republic parading and boasting in Iran’s streets — from Hashd al-Shaabi and Lebanese Hezbollah to Afghan and Pakistani terrorists?
The Islamic Republic and its terrorist, repressive IRGC have, before your very eyes, slaughtered tens of thousands of the purest and bravest children of this country, and each day send more to their deaths. These occupiers of Iran’s soil, with their destructive and apocalyptic madness, have brought the country to the brink of annihilation.
How have you closed your eyes to these realities and withdrawn from your role in defending the homeland and its people? How will history and future generations of Iran judge you?
Remember your national and patriotic oath and commitment. Take to the field. Defend the honor and credibility of Iran’s national army against the Islamic Republic and its foreign mercenaries.
And to you, the great nation of Iran: With a resounding voice, demand the national role of the army. Ask them to fulfill their duty to the homeland and the nation. Before it is too late, stand alongside the nation and save Iran.
After failing to win Congress and the presidency in 2024, the Democrats conducted an internal postmortem of what went wrong. While they predictably did not divulge the full results, everyone knew what they had found.
Their obsessions with the low side of 30/70 issues had especially alienated Democrats from white middle- and working-class voters. Yet middle-class whites still comprise about 40–50 percent of the population and are perhaps overrepresented in voter turnout.
Democrats realize that their fixations on biological males competing in women’s sports, open borders and millions of illegal entries, radical green agendas, DEI-driven racial essentialism, and massive government entitlements rife with fraud have alienated the middle classes in general and white middle- and working-class voters in particular.
But since Democrat ideologues cannot shed their ideological straitjackets, they have instead tried to finesse the very problem that cost them the 2024 election.
They recall, in particular, the successful blueprint that won them the 2020 election. During that campaign, Joe Biden largely remained out of public view, hiding in his basement, while his handlers reconstructed him as a kind of waxen effigy of “good ol’ Joe from Scranton,” a throwback to the 1970s.
Once the cognitively diminished Biden was elected, his hard-left, Obama-era operatives behind that ossified, working-man veneer enacted the most radical four-year agenda in modern American history.
On the one hand, Democrats claim they will field candidates who can at least playact as good ol’ boy farmers and salt-of-the-earth welders.
The 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate, Humpty Dumpty lookalike Tim Walz, talked incessantly about driving a pickup truck. He assured us he could change its oil and tried to portray himself as a genuine hunter. Yet these claims often came across as inauthentic, strained, and condescending; the more Walz tried to present himself as a man of the people, the more he appeared buffoonish.
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, became a caricature of the sanctimonious, credentialed technocrat—self-righteously and arrogantly projecting expertise without much humility or even a shred of the common touch. As transportation secretary, Buttigieg used to pontificate about racist freeway clover leaves, rather than addressing the more immediate problems posed by the gridlocked and decrepit condition of the nation’s highways.
Now, as the 2028 election looms, Buttigieg has followed Democratic central casting and undergone a complete reboot, reemerging with a beard, a trucker cap, and a flannel shirt.
No matter, he still sounds as pedantic as ever in his riff on green energy and “diversity.
Wannabe president and lame-duck California governor Gavin Newsom is also suddenly reinventing himself. He is now surrealistically claiming that, as the son of an appellate court judge, and raised as an intimate of the billionaire Getty family, that he scarcely survived on Wonder Bread and macaroni, was disabled by dyslexia, and struggled in a broken home typical of the poor white working classes.
To win back the white working class this time around, Democratic insiders are apparently not content merely to recycle—or astroturf—familiar, anemic candidates into veritable Obama-era “clingers.”
Now they are seeking out brand new faces to present as supposedly more authentic white working men. They believe that they have at last found the real thing in traditionally red Texas state legislator and Presbyterian minister James Talarico.
He talks nonstop like a left-winger, but with the voice of an evangelical Bible thumper. Talarico just won the Texas Democratic Senate primary over radical, racialist bomb thrower Jasmine Crockett. Surely, his handlers believe, he will do the impossible and flip the good old boys of Texas to the new Democratic agenda?
He may yet, but the Harvard-educated Talarico’s Christianity seems more like Latin American left-wing “liberation theology” than Texas-style evangelicalism. Talarico certainly has a long history of radical elite social media commentary, and he urges Texans not to demonize trans people and illegal aliens but instead go after “billionaires and their puppet politicians.”
Perhaps such class warfare is seen as a good start for the Left’s new, supposedly working-man’s radical populist. But it turns out Pastor Talarico is actually to the left of radical left Democrats. In the past, he had pandered to the very wing of the party that had lost its elections, with offerings like “God is non-binary” or notions that Christians have divine guidance to let transgender males play in women’s sports.
But the damning pièce de résistance of this supposedly authentic, blue-collar, white evangelical preacher was a previous post from Talarico: “Radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country.”
Democrat politicos and handlers also perhaps thought they had finally found the real thing in current Maine Senate primary candidate Graham Platner. Despite growing up in affluence and attending the tony Hotchkiss preparatory school, Platner’s makeover seemed far more genuine.
Indeed, The Washington Post gushed about him, saying he was “a rugged guy,” while Politico bragged that at last Democrats had found a MAGA everyman but—better yet—to the left of Bernie Sanders.
Platner joined the Marines, saw combat tours, and was variously a bartender and oysterman. But Platner may have gone a bit too far to serve as the Democrats’ new white working-class poster boy.
It was recently revealed that he had been tattooed with a skull that was the exact insignia of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (“Death’s Head Units”). These particular SS units were the worst of the worst of the psychopathic paramilitary organizations of Hitler’s Third Reich, often having been chosen to serve as guards in Nazi extermination camps.
Platner’s past social media postings didn’t help his often-lame excuses for the tattoo—although he knew as a leftist he would survive the brouhaha, given the antisemitic saturation of the new Democrat Party, and the exemptions provided to the “right people.” Indeed, he trumped Talarico’s disdain for the very demographic he was supposed to sew up, with the revelation that he had once described white rural Americans as “racists and stupid” while claiming that he was a communist and calling for armed resistance.
The reason why these white working-class veneers will likely not work is not just that they are strained facades, designed to make palatable an otherwise unpalatable agenda to Middle America.
They also ring untrue because the white working class has been so demonized by the Left that it will likely never return to the Democratic Party.
Consider just the pejoratives that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden have employed to stereotype and ridicule Trump supporters and the social-economical-rural environment that supposedly produced them: clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, dregs, chumps, semi-fascists, and garbage.
In other words, the hatred of and the condescension toward the white working class is baked into the new bicoastal and elitist Left and Democratic Party. It cannot be finessed or masked—as the postings of even their supposedly new working-class heroes attest.
Just recently, liberal comedian Jimmy Kimmel went off on the new Homeland Security Secretary, former Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin, blasting him as a mere “plumber”: “We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?”
Aside from the fact that plumbers are among the most skilled and important of all the critical tradesmen, plumbing was just one chapter in Mullin’s rich and varied career. He has an impressive record as a former ten-year congressman and a U.S. senator. He also helped turn his family business into one of the largest plumbing supply services in Oklahoma. But to Kimmel, all that was condensed to being a “plumber,” as if his left-wing audience would likewise see a plumber reaching the highest levels of government as a joke.
The View cohost Joy Behar just trashed Trump by claiming his supporters (half the country) were “poorly educated”—an odd thing to say when her liberal cohost, Whoopi Goldberg, is a high school dropout.
While it is true that leftist news and commentary outlets have greater percentages of college graduates in their audiences, that fact hardly translates into them being better-informed listeners.
Some polls, like the 2021 Heartland Institute’s survey, showed that the conservative talk radio followers, on average, were better at answering factual questions about politics than their leftist counterparts. That sounds reasonable given the current epidemic of campus grade inflation, nonmeritocratic admissions, therapeutic curricula, and the ubiquity of off-topic, left-wing faculty propagandists on campus.
In truth, the new radical left-wing Democratic Party is an elitist entity with a poorly disguised contempt for the white working class. That hatred is omnipresent and so emerges in the most unexpected fashion.
Remember the private text exchanges between disgraced FBI paramours Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, in which Trump voters were casually caricatured as Walmart shoppers defined by their supposed stench?
Or recall CNN reporter Marc Caputo’s snide jab at Trump rally attendees: “If you put everyone’s mouths together in this video, you’d get a full set of teeth.”
The locus classicus target of this bias was the vice-presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin, who, throughout the 2008 campaign, was smeared by leftists as “poor white trash.”
To New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Palin was nothing more than a “gun-toting hockey mom.” Talk show host David Letterman joked that Palin had bought makeup from Bloomingdale’s to update her “slutty flight attendant look.” The smug Letterman then added, “One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” Palin’s daughter Willow was 14 years old at the time.
The Left simply does not get it, or rather, has it backward. You do not need to look or act like the white working class to feel genuine affinity with it. Billionaire and former Manhattanite Donald Trump is proof enough of that.
The key is not whether you wear a suit or a trucker’s hat or grow a beard, but whether you show sincere concern for an often now-demonized demographic long written off by coastal elites as losers during globalization’s heyday.
So far, the smugness and lack of any such genuine empathy will doom the latest silly Democrat gambit. Sincerity cannot be finessed with tattoos, beards, or trucker caps—not by the media or Hollywood, and certainly not by the likes of Pete Buttigieg, Tim Walz, or James Talarico.
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About Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is an American military historian, columnist, a former classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004, and is the 2023 Giles O’Malley Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush, and the Bradley Prize in 2008. Hanson is also a farmer (growing almonds on a family farm in Selma, California) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism. He is the author of the just released New York Times best seller, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation, published by Basic Books on May 7, 2024, as well as the recent The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, The Case for Trump, and The Dying Citizen.
Photo: US President Donald Trump tours Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, on January 13, 2026. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
Explaining the decline of the Roman Empire in The Story of Civilization, Will Durant wrote: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.” The same could become true of the European Union (EU) in the 21st century. Postmodern illusions of a benign and righteous multiculturalism are allowing Islamist ideology—which has no reservations about its supremacist ambitions—to spread its roots with unprecedented virulence.
Consider how a guilt-shame complex fostered by leftist academia in institutions, the media, and the public is eroding the Judeo-Christian ethos. Christmas is no longer Christmas but some silly secular celebration like ‘Winter Journey’ or ‘Destination Beautiful Winter,’ while ‘Merry Christmas’ is being replaced by ‘Happy Winter.’ In the U.S., France, Spain, Germany, and beyond, governments, schools, and media outlets have diminished, canceled, or sanitized Judeo-Christian festivals and done away with Christian symbols, lights, and even traditional songs.
At the same time, Islam is permitted a loud and visible presence. Ramadan celebrations are happening more often at iconic locations and major government buildings. Iftar prayers are increasingly being held in public spaces rather than in mosques. Belgium, for example, organized the longest iftar dinner—2 km long, crossing multiple communities, and serving over 8,000 guests. The adhan, which proclaims there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger, echoes from loudspeakers, asserting Islamic dominance and rejecting all other religions, to which such accommodations are outright denied.
In the U.K., iftars were even held within cathedrals in Manchester, Bristol, Southwark, Bradford, St. Paul’s, and Coventry. Declaring Allah as the only true God in a place dedicated to practicing Christianity is a direct violation of canon law, but the influence of public opinion and mood has increasingly led churches to permit it- perhaps as a gesture of virtue signaling or out of fear of criticism. No one questions whether the practices of other religions would ever be allowed in a mosque.
Public prayer is not permitted for other religions—even Christianity—in a predominantly Christian continent. Only Islam receives that privilege: in many cities in the U.S. and Europe, traffic is delayed when Muslims perform namaz on the streets. However, Christians are often arrested for proselytizing, preaching, or even praying. Constitutional rights—such as the freedom of belief and opinion—are selectively disregarded: Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was charged twice for quietly standing and praying outside an abortion clinic.
The broad cultural shift across Europe has been toward a questionable and rigid rational-scientific-secular outlook when it comes to all religions other than Islam. The U.K. and other European countries have been going out of their way to accommodate Muslim beliefs. Laws and school guidelines warn against depictions of Mohammed and even of human figures—since Muslims might find them blasphemous. A 32-page booklet issued by the city of Leeds warns educators about Muslim “sensitivities” to art, dance, music, and physical education.
The UK’s new definition of “anti-Muslim hostility” includes a blasphemy law that closely resembles Islamic doctrine. Under this law, legitimate concerns and criticisms about Muslims and their practices could be easily suppressed. Even more concerning, it might also hinder police, public services, and NGOs from addressing issues like grooming gangs, female genital mutilation, and terrorism. Despite these broad protections, the Muslim Council of Britain described the changes as a “diminished version” that did not seek input from its leadership during discussions. This contrasts with the dhimmitude imposed on non-Muslims in Islamic countries.
Coordinated Islamization through peaceful and violent means continues rapidly in Europe because countries are welcoming a community that refuses to integrate. Large-scale migration is followed by the construction of more mosques and madrasas, a rise in sharia courts, and Muslims choosing to follow Islamic law over national laws. Landscapes are noticeably changing, and Muslim neighborhoods, where Islamic dress and dietary codes are enforced, are becoming more common in European cities.
Many Muslim neighborhoods have become no-go zones for law enforcement, despite being hotspots for crime, violence against women, Islamist indoctrination, and terrorism. A 2020 Swedish study found a strong connection between crime and immigration. From 2002 to 2017, immigrants (mostly Muslim) were suspects in 74% of murders, attempted murders, and manslaughter cases, and in 70% of robberies. Since 2018, Sweden, France, Germany, and the U.K. have experienced a rise in bombings, gang shootings, stabbings, beheadings, and assaults on police. Sweden, in particular, has become the rape capital of Europe, while the U.K. refuses to acknowledge the existence of grooming and rape gangs targeting underage girls.
These crimes are rarely prosecuted because Muslims have become a protected class in much of Europe, a status they have gained through large-scale immigration and deliberate pressure. As the Muslim population grows, so do accusations of racism and Islamophobia. Europe, in its obsession with multiculturalism and the idea of a secular state free from any cultural influence, goes above and beyond to accommodate Islamic beliefs and protect Muslims.
A Pew Research Center study estimated the Muslim population in Europe at 4.9%, projected to grow to between 7.4% and 14% by 2025, depending on migration trends and fertility rates, which are generally higher among Muslim immigrants than in native populations. Germany and Sweden could see Muslim populations reach 20–30%, while France, Italy, and Belgium could face similar pressure. Once large Muslim communities are established, they can advocate for laws that support Islamic dominance. Additionally, there is always an unspoken threat that any perceived wrong may lead to retaliatory terrorist attacks.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 