Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist with Il Foglio,member of the Middle East Forum and writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author, in English, of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books, in addition to books in Italian. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone, Frontpage and Commentary.
“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.