Plummeting birthrates among native Europeans combined with a burgeoning Muslim population on the Continent, Mark Steyn argues in America Alone, is leading to an “apocalyptic scenario.” Steyn writes, “The U.S. government’s National Intelligence Council is predicting the EU will collapse by 2020. I think that’s rather a cautious estimate myself.”

In fact, the spread of radical Islam has started a chain reaction that will soon result in a European superpower that will smash its way to world dominance! “Throughout Europe’s history,” wrote Gerald Flurry two years ago, “what has helped it to overcome its division has been a unity of purpose between church and state. … But this church-state union hasn’t always been a happy marriage. Usually the two have been drawn together because of a crisis—an emergency.”

Recently, several signs have pointed to the fact that Europe is waking to the crisis. Daniel Pipes identified several of these in a recent column for the Jerusalem Post:

Europeans are visibly showing signs of impatience with creeping sharia. The legislation in France that prohibits hijabs from public school classrooms signals the reluctance to accept Islamic ways, as are related efforts to ban burkas, mosques and minarets. Throughout Western Europe, anti-immigrant parties are generally increasing in popularity.That resistance took a new turn last week, with two dramatic events. First, on March 22, Pope Benedict xvi himself baptized, confirmed, and gave the Eucharist to Magdi Allam, 56, a prominent Egyptian-born Muslim long living in Italy, where he is a top editor at the Corriere della Sera newspaper and a well-known author. … The ceremony converting him to the Catholic religion could not have been higher profile, occurring at a nighttime service at St. Peter’s Basilica on the eve of Easter Sunday, with exhaustive coverage from the Vatican and many other tv stations.Allam followed up his conversion with a stinging statement in which he argued that beyond “the phenomenon of Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictive.”

“In attempting to galvanize and energize 1 billion Catholics,” Stratfor wrote in response to Allam’s baptism, “Benedict might also further alienate 1 billion Muslims” (March 24). This, as we have written many times, is leading to the Daniel 11:40 clash.

Another recent development Pipes referred to in his Post column was the release of Geert Wilders’s new film Fitna. The 15-minute film, Pipes wrote, “consists of some of the most bellicose verses of the Koran, followed by actions in accord with those verses carried out by Islamists in recent years.” He continued, “The obvious implication is that Islamists are simply acting in accord with their scriptures. In Allam’s words, Wilders also argues that ‘the root of evil is inherent’ in Islam.”

At the end of his column, Pipes wrote, “Allam and Wilders may represent the vanguard of a Christian/liberal reassertion of European values. It is too soon to predict, but these staunch individuals could provide a crucial boost for those intent on maintaining the Continent’s historic identity.”

For more about Europe’s prophesied response to the spread of radical Islam, read Ron Fraser’s column, posted last Sunday.