Ever since the murder of twelve Charlie Hebdo cartoonists by two Muslim brothers, Europe has, in the view of Zvika Klein, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, been quietly censoring itself, and changing its behavior in other ways, too, to avoid a violent Muslim response. Eleven years after those murders, Klein argues that we can now see how Europe has changed. More on what he believes is its ineluctable transformation can be found here: “Are we watching the collapse of Western Europe in real time? – comment,” by Zvika Klein, Jerusalem Post, January 7, 2026:
Eleven years ago today [January 7], two brothers walked into the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo and murdered 12 people for drawing cartoons.
Two days later, another gunman, this one pledging allegiance to ISIS, walked into a kosher supermarket and murdered four Jews buying groceries for Shabbat.
We thought we were watching an atrocity. We were actually watching the beginning of the end of Europe as we knew it.
These weren’t random acts of violence. They were tutorials. These were demonstrations of how terror rewrites the rules of free societies without the need to pass laws.
The lesson was easy to comprehend: Publish what we don’t like, and we’ll kill you. Be visibly Jewish in public, and we’ll kill you. Once we’ve done it a few times, the fear will do the rest of the work for us.
That’s the evil genius of the strategy. You only have to strike once or twice before the inhibition becomes self-sustaining.
This procedure is what I call “censorship by Kalashnikov.” The gun fires in a Paris newsroom, and the blast impacts every editorial meeting in London and New York. This phenomenon permeates every university classroom in Berlin and Toronto. It is included in every synagogue security briefing in Los Angeles and Miami….
When a former head of state admits that terrorism successfully changed the behavior of a free press, he’s telling you the attackers achieved their strategic objective. The attackers’ strategic objective was not to kill 12 cartoonists or four Jews in a supermarket. It was killing the confidence of an entire civilization in its principles.
And that’s exactly what happened. The Europe that existed before January 2015, the Europe that believed it had settled the question of blasphemy in the Enlightenment, thought secularism was a done deal, and assumed Jews could live openly without armed guards at every synagogue, that Europe started dying that week….
The two countries in the Middle East that do not have blasphemy laws are Israel, a non-Muslim polity, and Lebanon, which has a large Christian minority.
After the decapitation of French high school teacher Samuel Paty for having shown, as part of a class on free speech, some of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Muhammad, teachers throughout France ceased to show, or even to discuss, those cartoons. And who can blame them? Why take a chance?
Eleven years is a long time to spend managing fear instead of defeating it. The people who were killed at Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher were casualties in a war over whether free societies can remain free.
The question remains whether journalists can continue to practice their profession. Whether Jews are allowed to buy groceries without calculating the risk. Whether any of us get to live in countries where the threat of murder looms over every editorial decision and every public gathering.
We can build memorials, light candles, and recite speeches about unity. Or we can recognize these murders [at Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher] for what they were: the opening salvo in the collapse of Western Europe. This is an enemy strategy that has proven far more effective than we are willing to acknowledge, that continues working every single day, and that depends entirely on our willingness to continue accommodating it.
We can decide to stop letting it work. But the time is running out. And Europe as we knew it is already gone. The question is whether the rest of the West follows.
The choice is still ours. For now.
This is, I think, much too gloomy a picture. It is true that many Europeans are now in the grip of self-censorship when it comes to Islam. Many things are not said because they will offend Muslims. But not everyone has been silenced. Think of Jordan Bardella, Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour, Tommy Robinson, Alice Wiedel, Thilo Sarrazin, Henryk Broder, Geert Wilders, and many others in Europe who continue to speak their mind about Islam. Furthermore, those politicians who are alarmed about the Muslim presence in Europe and want to limit, or halt entirely, Muslim immigration, are coming in first in the opinion polls: Bardella of the National Rally, Wiedel of the Alternative für Deutschland, and Meloni of Fratelli d’Italia come immediately to mind. Europe may have been on a downward slope of self-censorship since the Charlie Hebdo attack, but there are many signs that the continent now coming to its senses. In fact, Charlie Hebdo itself is a perfect example of this: it has again been publishing cartoons that make fun of Islam.
Then there is the United States, where people continue to speak their mind about Islam without fear. There is, for example, this very website, and it is not alone, though I think it may be considered primus inter pares. Islam is subject to ever more criticism as Americans learn more about it. Perhaps Zvika Klein should take a closer look across the ocean. What he sees might give him hope.
Huh?!? says
The U.S. must study the UK and Europe, so the U.S. does not back down from Islam. The U.S. must harden itself against Islamic realities.
truth says
we have some people who i thought were good people calling for internet censorship in America. They are actually calling for the end of the first amendment. Can someone talk to these people and tell them that’s a bridge to far.. If you want to make americans really hate you take away their voice and see how that goes.
Anyone who goes down that road is the obvious enemy. I don’t understand what people don’t get.? American is the last place on earth where you can think and say what you want. The world can’t afford to lose that.
Bill says
We won’t. Far too many will continue to uphold the Constitution.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Hugh, all the people you list, aside from maybe Jordan Bardella, are struggling to come to power in their countries. In the Netherlands, the PVV, which briefly was the largest but never really the ruling party, has lost its majority. In Germany, AfD struggles to win support in West Germany: their strongholds are just the areas that used to be East Germany. In Britain, as others have pointed out, even Reform has been reduced to pandering to muslims, and the parties/groups that do oppose islam – Britain First, UKIP, Advance UK, Restore Britain, Reclaim,…. are all fringe groups
Nothing short of a major civil war in Europe will restore sanity
Hugh Fitzgerald says
You may be right about those anti-Islam parties “struggling.” Still, I cannot help noticing that Alice Weidel’s party, Alternative für Deutschland, leads the CDU by three points in the latest poll.’Geert Wilders’ PVV in the Netherlands tied in the latest poll with the centrist D66. Farage’s party keeps rising in the polls, and has a reasonable chance to win the largest number of seats in Parliament (right now Reform only has a paltry five). There is some worry that Reform’s momentum has been stopped and that Kemi Badenoch and her Conservative Party will be the beneficiaries. She, of course, has been as firm on Islam as anyone from Reform. By next summer, a lot of the elections will have been held and both you and I will be better able to gauge the strength of the anti-Islam politicians and parties.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Hugh
Even if I grant you all the above points, Farage is not tough on islam. Just ask Robert, if you don’t believe the Englishmen who post here. The parties who are serious about islam – Advance UK, Restore Britain, UKIP and Britain First – all of them are fringe parties
Tony says
The Politicians, the Bureaucrats, the Police, etc. have failed to protect citizens from Muslim attacks and have failed to teach the citizens that Islam is the source ideology of the attackers. Moreover, native citizens have been censored, threatened, and arrested for their criticism of Islam and its Muslims. Also, those same Politicians, Bureaucrats, Police, etc. have defended Islam and its Muslims from citizen criticism and have funded continuous Muslim migration into the West. Hence, Western Leaders are making Islam and its Muslims succeed in their conquest of the West. Why are we shocked or surprised?
SUPREMACIST ISLAM IS ANTICHRIST, AHISTORICAL, DECEITFUL, MILITARISTIC, AND POLITICAL against the USA Constitution and Western Laws to conquer and to subjugate Non-Muslims using MUSLIM-TERRORIST-CRIMINAL-GANG ENTERPRISES with ISLAMIC LAW(SHARIA) and with CONTINUOUS, TERROR PROPAGANDA from Islam’s Qur’an as evidenced by the continuous Muslim attacks to make Islam supreme(Qur’an 2:191; 3:28, 54; 4:89-91; 7:99; 8:30, 60; 9:5, 29,111; 16:106, etc.). Islam and its Muslims, enemies of Non-Muslims, are a Muslim Terrorist Organization(MTO) as taught in Islam’s Qur’an.
Deceitful Allah affirms Non-Muslims as enemies of Allah while Muslims continuously undermine a society from within using their man-made Qur’an with lies, obfuscation, and deceit(Qur’an 3:54; 7:99; 8:30; 60:4, etc.). Allah in Qur’an 4:101 says, “…Surely the infidels[Non-Muslims] were your clear enemies.” Allah expects all Muslim believers to war against all non-Muslims until the Unbelievers convert to Islam or face Muslim violence. Corrupt Allah in Qur’an 8:39 says, “And engage in war with them[Non-Muslims] until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah…” As a result, Non-Muslims are marked for death by Islam and its Muslims.
Murderous Islam is a civilization-destroying, delusional, indoctrinating, cancerous fraud because there is NO MECCA, NO MUHAMMAD, and NO Qur’an in the 7th century AD in Saudi Arabia despite the Muslim Standard Islamic Narrative claims; the Deceitful House of Islam is founded on propaganda, lies, intimidation, and deceit where Islam’s 1400-year traditions are based on fallacy and myth including a more than 300-year gap with no documented history. Hence, NEVER give money to Islamic Countries, Islamic Organizations, Mosques, Islamic Schools, etc. because your are funding your ultimate destruction. Islam must be banned as illegal, and we have the legal right to defend ourselves from Muslim violence.
Islam’s Muslims are to be Seditionist Terrorists for Allah with their MONEY and their LIVES. Allah in Qur’an 49:15 teaches, “Surely the believers[Muslims] are only those who believed in Allah and his messenger. They do not doubt, and they performed jihad with their MONEY and their LIVES for the sake of Allah. Those are the truthful.” Again, Islam is a FACTITIOUS IDEOLOGY and CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION despicably fabricated over time into the 21sth century, and there is NO PEACE only genocidal obliteration with Islam and its deceitful Muslims(Qur’an 7:18; 8:39: 9:5, 29, 111; 11:119; 32:13; 47:4, etc.).
Demonic ALLAH claims MUSLIMS are a greater TERROR than serpentine Allah in Islam’s Qur’an. Allah in Qur’an 59:13 says, “You[Muslims] are a greater terror in their chests than Allah. This is because they[Jews & Christians] are people who do not understand.” Allah in Qur’an 9:29 commands, “Engage in war with those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day. Nor forbid what Allah and his messenger forbid, nor believe in the religion of the truth among those who have given the book until they pay the jizyah out of hand and they are subdued.”
Islam, its Mosques, its Schools, its Sharia Courts, its Organizations, etc. are Terrorist-Criminal Enterprises of hatred and enmity against all Non-Muslims as totalitarian Islam, the House of Satan, islamizes the society with impunity(Qur’an 5:14, 64; 60:4; 9:5, 29, 111, etc.). As taught from Islam’s Qur’an, Islam should be banned for its incitement, funding, and promotion of hybrid warfare, violence, terrorism, criminality, hatred, human trafficking, and discrimination against women, children, and Non-Muslims.
Allah describes Muslim women in Jenna, Allah’s Paradise, as whores of Allah in Qur’an 56:37. Also, Allah stirs hatred against Christians until the resurrection day as Qur’an 5:14 instructs, “And some of those who say, ‘Surely we are Nasara (Christians),’ we took their covenant. So they have forgotten a part of what they were reminded of, so we have stirred up ENMITY and HATRED among them until the resurrection day. And Allah will inform them of what they were doing.” See also Qur’an 60:4; 8:55.
Walter Sieruk says
Statistics show that 91% of terrorist attacks that occurs in Europeans countries are Islamic.
The sad and tragic reality of jihad-minded Muslims migrants who live in France, as seen in those 12 murder about that Hebdo Charlie cartoon and the other nations of continental Europe who engage in Islamic suicide/homicide bombings attacks is for a large part, the outcome the extreme brainwashing that is performed in Islamic mind programming centers, which are mosques and madrasas.
In those jihad mind control places students are thoroughly indoctrinated into the jihadist mindset of committing murderous bombing attacks in the jihad for the advancement of Islam. As Islam’s “holy book,” the Quran instructs in 9:111. , for example, “The believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain they kill and are killed.” Therefore, those who come out of those Quran based mind programming centers .mosque and madrasas, are so terribly harmed and damaged that they are literally, as it has be rightfully called, “dangerous to self and others.” This results in jihad suicide /homicide attack in which those jihadists who commit such murderous actions are so very deluded that they think of that jihad mass murders as “martyrdom operations.” This is Islamic delusion of the most heinous and malicious kind.
This may be, somewhat, explained by the narrative from the fable of Aesop which is entitled THE SCORPION AND THE FROG So “Once upon a time there was a scorpion who really wanted to get to the other side of the river, but he could not swim. Therefore, the scorpion begged a frog to carry him on his back across the river. The kind but foolish frog agreed and then half-way across the river the scorpion stung the frog. In shock and horror the dying frog asks the scorpion “Why did you sting me since this means that we both are going to die” The scorpion replied “The reason that I stung you even though we both will now die is because that just what a scorpion, by nature, does.”
In conclusion, just as that scorpion in the fable had proven himself by the dangerous and deadly, to self and others, because of his nature. The violent and murderous jihadists of Islam are as that scorpion, dangerous so self and other because they is their nature because they have been thought programmed in the ways of the violent and murdering jihad of Islam. As always stated above ,this is the sad and tragic reality of Islamic terrorism in today’s world.
Isabella Hale says
The French gov’t.. which apparently is still able to conduct war.. should immediately deport the Islamic Muslim terrorists. They know how to de-bank or freeze money just as well as Europe does. Europe needs to immediately block, deport and stop the Islamic Muslim terrorists.. like the left wing likes to say here: by any means possible.. or yes.. Europe will be the new Caliphate. Europeans are largely unarmed,, except the criminals… of course. But the population not armed. I have been to Germany and England.. and know this.. for a fact.. THEIR FUTURE IS IN THEIR OWN HANDS. I pray for them
Walter Sieruk says
The subject of the possible Islamization of Europe and about Islamic terrorism in Europe is a strong reminder that a book with title of JIHAD IN THE WEST published in the year 1998 authored by Paul Fregosi ,was a man who was thinking ,a bit ahead of his time ,as in before 9/11 and then many Islamic horrors of jihad terrorism that hit London, Manchester, Madrid Paris as well as other Western nations of Europe .For above mentioned book of page 411 reads “Most worrying , both Islam and the West see each other as potential enemies of tomorrow .The future is a source of concern , not of optimism.”
For this year of 2026 is the “future” as seen from the time-frame of the year 1998 when that book was published. As the author thus had a valid point in what he wrote in the above quote .
Moreover the threats of the jihadists towards the people of the nations of West .This has been further explained and revealed by in the book , by Robert Spencer ,THE HISTORY OF THE JIHAD FROM MUHAMMAD TO ISIS .Which in page 367 informs the reader that “The early twenty- first century saw a sharp rise in jihad massacres perpetrated all over the West by individuals or small groups of Muslims: in London, Manchester, Paris, Toulouse, Nice ,Amsterdam, Madrid, Brussels, Berlin Munich ,Copenhagen…”
Those jihadists /Muslims with their insidious jihad-minded Muslims scheming for the subtle and not so subtle, Islamic conquest of Europe by every possible means, including the stealth and violent jihad which is, indeed, awful.
As explained by William Wagner in his book HOW ISLAM PLANS TO CHANGE THE WORLD .Which informs the reader n page 195 “Of all the continents of the world, Europe is probably the number one target by Muslim strategist who are seeking world dominance.”
Therefore, all Europeans and other Westerners would be wise to be on guard.
Walter Sieruk says
The Muslim political infiltration and influence into many governments of Europe for the elevation and growth of Islam with its Sharia Law is what is known as the Stealth jihad otherwise called the Muslim method of Islamic Gradualism.
In contrast to the way of the violent jihad or also called the militant jihad .This non-violent form of the jihad for Islam is a very sly, insidious, subtle and deceptive way of working for the advancement of Islam.
This Muslim scheme for achieving the goal of the Islamic agenda is as, many times, as subtly effective as it is demonically clever.
Furthermore, this Islamic gradualism, in some ways, is very similar to the instruction printed in the book entitled THE ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu. Which reads “At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden, until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to opposes you”
Those scheming insidious stealth jihadist /Muslims who attempt to have Sharia law set up in different nations of Europe engage in the doctrines of the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya which is very insidious. Taqyyia is the jihad dogma that deception is a good thing to do as long as it’s done for the advancement of Islam.
Nevertheless, the God of the Bible “condemns those who devise wicked schemes…” Proverbs 12:11.
Likewise, Proverbs 12:20 teaches “Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil.”
The Muslim Islamic quest to have Sharia law enacted in the different countries of Europe by insidious political, influence and influence is called the “stealth jihad.”
With this known it needs to be understood that the term used by many in the West in current times is “political Islam” That term is, in reality redundant. This is because Islam is in essence, a religious /political Sharia law based system. As so well explained in brief way, by the Muslim tyrant who and ruled Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini when he stated that “All Islam is politics.” [1]
[1] THE ISLAM IN ISLAMIC TERRORISM by Ibn Warraq , page 332.
Walter Sieruk says
Those Muslim migrants who have entered the different nations of Europe and commit many sex crimes and engage in riots, along with arson and vandalism that are part of those riots. As well as murderous actions of Islamic terrorism. Such deadly jihad affront reveals the jihad minded Islamic contempt .dishonor and reproach towards the people of the Netherlands as well as Muslim malice toward the people of all other Western nations who were kind yet foolish enough to allow them, those Muslim migrants to enter, invade, of Europe in the first place. This type of situation is reflected in the Bible .Which reads “When the wicked comes, contempt comes also; with dishonor comes reproach.” Proverbs 18:3. [N.K.J.V.]
Furthermore, those jihadist Muslims with their Islamic way of thinking by their well thought Islamic schemes for the action of involvement in their violent and sheath jihad for the advancement of Islam in the many different Western nations. Those sly scheming jihadists are, somewhat, of a reminder of the information reveled in the Bible in Proverbs 15:26. In which the reader is informed that even “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord…”
Emilie Green says
“Primus inter pares” is the informal title given to the Chief Justice of the USSC.
First Among Equals.
Jihad Watch and its analysts have no equal.
But I will allow that there is a second ranking of websites which do a credible job of informing on the abhorrent nature of Islam.
James Lincoln says
In his excellent feature article, Hugh Fitzgerald states:
“this very website, and it is not alone, though I think it may be considered primus inter pares.”
Yes, it is the “best of the best”.
RobtheGray1 says
Yet we need to draw and keep the distinction between “Freedom of Speech” and “Calls for Violence,” typically against a given minority group of people. Violent bullies LOVE to pull the wool over our Bill of Rights’ First amendment – by claiming their violent acts are sanctioned under the First of our Bill of Rights, when in fact its purpose is to protect us from the violence of those offenders who abuse that right as “free speech.” Violence is NOT “free speech.”
gravenimage says
Agreed–preaching murder is *not* protected speech.