religion & politics

My new Book: “Towards the Radical Political Theology” is now available on Amazon.

At the beginning of the eighth century, approximately one hundred years after the inception of Islam, St. John of Damascus (c. 675–749), one of the great Fathers of the Church, composed an assessment of the advancing religious movement in his work On Heresies, in which he devoted an entire chapter to what he called “The Heresy of the Ishmaelites.”[1] Writing from within the context of early Islamic expansion, John regarded Islam not as separate religion but as a heresy, akin to Arianism, which he described as a “deceptive superstition.”² He portrayed Muhammad as a “false prophet” and Islam as a “forerunner of the Antichrist,”[2] interpreting its rise within the apocalyptic horizon of Christian thought. At the time of his writing, Islam was still in the process of formation, yet St. John’s analysis reflects the earliest systematic Christian attempt to engage with the new religious movement intellectually and theologically, and to our present age, rather prophetically, pointing out the diabolical nature of its contemporary radical interpretation. Islam later developed into one of the world’s major religions, and today, it has over two billion adherents. Its historical trajectory and expansion was always accompanied by the sword, and in the recent century with radicalization which have obscured its more moderate expressions. The advance of Islam in contemporary Western culture, particularly across Europe over the past two decades, offers a sobering warning to what remains of Western Christendom: that the extreme expressions of Islam now visible in many quarters do not seek integration, but rather conversion, domination, and the imposition of Sharia as an alternative order diametrically different from our European culture. Disturbing scenes unfolding across the oldest continent, throughout the United Kingdom, Sweden, and France may serve as a warning of what awaits the United States if Christians remain indifferent and passive in preserving the American way of life, what I would call the last bastion of Western Christian civilization.

The ideal of multiculturalism can only be sustained when it is composed of cultures that are broadly compatible with the principles of democratic society, individual liberty, and the rule of law. While many religious and cultural traditions enrich the social tapestry of the West, others, such as radical Islam stand in fundamental opposition to its core values.[3] In that sense, “multiculturalism is dead”[4]. As Samuel Huntington warned, “Some Westerners have argued that the West does not have problems with Islam but only with violent Islamist extremists. Fourteen hundred years of history demonstrate otherwise.”[5] It should be noted that the collapse of multiculturalism has been significantly conditioned by the particular hermetics of Europe’s Muslim population, and their inability to integrate to Western Culture. This is hardly surprising, given that in Islam there is no clear distinction between culture, politics, law, and religion. The growing influence of religious fundamentalism in Europe threatens to further aggravate this situation. The apocalyptic tone once voiced by Islamic State spokesperson Abu Muhammad al-Adnani who declared that [ISIS] would “conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women,” and that “your children will sell our sons as slaves” belongs to a particular historical moment, yet, the threat echoes as new radical movements arise. This persistence is not without significance, given that Europe is home to more than 44 million Muslims—its fastest-growing religious group—within which radical and extremist currents still find traction, is a clear cause for concern. Radical Islam, as a political-theological project, does not merely seek coexistence but aims at the subjugation of Western institutions, the erosion of liberal democratic norms, and the eventual imposition of Sharia law. Bernard Lewis underscored this clash, noting that in Islamic societies, “authority is the natural state, and freedom is the privilege.”[6] Popper is underlying this in his paradox of tolerance, “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant… the tolerance will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”[7] This ideological threat must be named with clarity, not to vilify individuals of Muslim religion, many of whom reject extremism, but to safeguard the cultural and spiritual inheritance that upholds both freedom and justice in Western civilization.

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While the Muslim population in the United States enjoys all the freedoms in exercising their religion, Christians in countries with a majority Muslim population do not share the same rights or equality. On the contrary, millions of Christians face persecution worldwide, ranging from legal or bureaucratic issues all the way to life-threatening circumstances. The most comprehensive global data is provided by the international organization “Open Doors”, which estimates that more than 380 million Christians live in countries where they face “high levels of persecution and discrimination.”[8] One in seven Christians are persecuted worldwide, while one in five are persecuted in Africa, while two in five in Asia. In 2023 alone, the organization recorded that more than five thousand Christians were killed for their faith, more than 14000 attacks on churches and Christian properties, and more thousands of believers detained or imprisoned without trial.[9] According to their reports, persecution is most severe in regions where “radical Islamic ideology, authoritarian governments, and tribal hostility converge,” especially across sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.[10]

A briefing issued by the UK Parliament’s House of Commons Library in February 2024 aligns with aforementioned data, noting that “violence against Christians continues to rise in areas affected by Islamist insurgencies,” particularly in Nigeria, Mozambique, and Burkina Faso.[11] The report underlines that persecution often occurs “under the banner of jihad,” though local political and ethnic conflicts frequently intersect with religious extremism.[12] It concludes that radical Islamist movements exploit weak state institutions and poverty to propagate an ideology in which Christians are viewed as both theological adversaries and symbols of Western influence.[13]

A study authored by Haider, Hasan, and Furman for the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office observes that since the early 2000s, “the rise of extremist Islamist ideologies has torn apart the social fabric that once allowed Christians to live alongside Muslims.”[14] The report attributes the crisis primarily to “militant groups which follow an ultra-orthodox and skewed interpretation of Islam,”[15] leading to the destruction of churches, forced displacement, and the mass exodus of Christian populations from Iraq and Syria. Between 2003 and 2017, the Christian population of Iraq fell from an estimated 1.5 million to fewer than quarter of a million,[16] while the Syrian civil war and the advance of the Islamic State further decimated ancient Christian communities. The Nigerian context has become one of the deadliest arenas for Islamist violence against Christians. An investigation by the New York Post in September 2024 cites findings from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law documenting that thousands of Christians [have been] deliberately targeted and killed in Nigeria, primarily by Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Fulani militant groups.[17] The report notes that the attacks are deliberate campaigns aimed at driving Christians from their ancestral lands.[18] In some northern states, church burnings and kidnappings have become routine, creating what Open Doors describes as “a humanitarian catastrophe of both faith and security.”¹³ The staggering truth which testifies the gravity of the persecution is that a century ago, Christians in the Middle East constituted 20% of the population, which is not reduced to only 3%.[19] The most horrifying and most recent persecutions are coming from sub-saharan Africa - Sudan, where Christians are literally slaughtered. The latest report from Open Doors states that “100 churches have been damaged [...] and Christians have been abducted and killed. Sudanese Christians who have come to faith from a Muslim background face severe backlash from their families and communities.”[20]

The persecution of Christians by radical Islamic movements is not just a sociopolitical crisis, it has a strong theological dimension. These persecutions show the spiritual pathology that arises from religious absolutism and extremism. The violence against Christians in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia is a warning: such culture is not only extreme but also incompatible with the West. Most importantly, Christians in the United States must recognize their political responsibility to safeguard our civilization from this radical threat. Radical political theology, therefore, interprets persecution as more than religious extremism. It reveals disorder, signals looming chaos, and, in the prophetic sense of St. John of Damascus, becomes the “forerunner of Anti-Christ.”, where Christians should act as a sort of kathechon. Spiritual force driving radical Islam is indeed demonic. Such a culture is unable to accept the cultural norms of modern civilization, democracy, and multiculturalism. Its homogenous structure will only accept dominion and imposition and nothing less. As Murray observes: “it’s a death cult, a cult that literally worships death.”[21] That is the sole reason they invaded Europe, and the leaders of the European Union who permitted this tide have, knowingly or not, signed the continent’s death warrant.[22] A similar fate may await the United States unless the Christian and Jewish communities stand firmly and resolutely against it. The objective of radical Islam is unambiguous: to put the entire world under the dominion of Sharia law, by all means necessary. Enslave the one you conquer, kill the ones who defy, while taking their wives as concubines, tax the obedient who refuse to convert - and that is the moderate interpretation.

Perhaps the most graphic and chilling example that reveals the anatomy of evil in action occurred on October 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas, an Islamist militant organization, launched an unprecedented cross-border attack from Gaza into southern Israel. The group fired thousands of rockets and carried out coordinated ground attacks on civilian communities, killing approximately 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting around 250 others in unmatched brutality. As these violent scenes unfolded, people in Gaza, cheerfully rooted not knowingly they will become victims of their own government in forthcoming retribution. The sheer horror of the crimes, widely documented by the international community, demonstrated not only the depth of ideological and religious fanaticism but also the utter contempt for the sanctity of human life that characterizes radical Islamist movements at their most extreme. Such ideology and extreme interpretation of the religious beliefs should be deemed as nothing less than warning of what is to come unless such ideology is curbed in the US and treated as the highest security threat and domestic terrorism. This is, therefore, a sobering moment for the Church: a time to be observant, vigilant, and alert to the reality that a new form of holy war: spiritual, cultural, and ideological is no longer a distant abstraction but an approaching contest for the soul of the West.

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[1] John of Damascus, De Haeresibus (On Heresies), in Writings, trans. Frederic H. Chase Jr., The Fathers of the Church, vol. 37 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), 153–160.

[2] Daniel J. Sahas, John of Damascus on Islam: The “Heresy of the Ishmaelites” (Leiden: Brill, 1972), 68.

[3] See: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights (New York: Harper, 2021).

[4] Kate Connolly, “Angela Merkel Declares Death of German Multiculturalism,” The Guardian, October 17, 2010, sec. World News, quoting the German Chancellor’s speech to the youth wing of her CDU party in Potsdam, that “this concept has failed, and failed utterly.”

[5] Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 209.

[6] Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 162.

[7] Karl R. Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, vol. 1, The Spell of Plato (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1945), 265.

[8] Open Doors World Watch List 2024, “Persecution of Christians Worldwide,” opendoors.org

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] United Kingdom, House of Commons Library, Christian Persecution Worldwide, CDP-2024-0017 (London: Parliamentary Research Service, 2024), 2.

[12] Ibid., 3.

[13] Ibid., 5.

[14] Haider, Zulfiqar, Hasan, Rana, and Furman, Natalie, Persecution of Christians in the Middle East (London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2017), 6.

[15] Ibid., 7.

[16] Ibid., 10.

[17] “Thousands of Christians Deliberately Targeted and Killed in Nigeria,” New York Post, September 3, 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/09/03/world-news/thousands-of-christians-deliberately-targeted-and-killed-in-nigeria-report

[18] Ibid.

[19] United Kingdom, House of Commons Library, Christian Persecution Worldwide, CDP-2024-0017 (London: Parliamentary Research Service, 2024), 1.

[20] Open Doors USA, “Sudan,” World Watch List 2024, accessed October 29, 2025, https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/persecution/countries/sudan/

[21] “The West Is Too Weak for Radical Islam | Douglas Murray | EP 546,” YouTube video, 0:02:22, posted by “Jordan Peterson” June 3, 2024,

[22] Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018).