Protesters throughout Europe are burning copies of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. These demonstrations have surged in the past year, but the media won’t report the real reason.

On January 21, Danish politician Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, after a heated speech against Islam. The next day, Dutch leader of anti-Islam group pegida, Edwin Wagensveld, tore and burned pages of the Koran in The Hague, an act which police authorized ahead of time.

Last month, Christian Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika set fire to Koran pages in front of the largest mosque in Stockholm during an Islamic holiday. On July 24, the far-right Danish Patriots burned the Koran and stomped on an Iraqi flag in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.

As a result, protests erupted throughout Europe and the Middle East. Turkey denounced the “vile attacks,” and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for a daylong protest. Hundreds of Iraqis stormed, vandalized, and set fire to the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Police have received requests from individuals wanting to stage more book burnings for the Koran, as well as the Torah and the Bible.

The book burnings created a sticky situation for Swedish courts, who were torn between upholding free speech and defending religious minorities. Sweden has no blasphemy laws to prohibit the desecration of religious texts. Liberal commentators rose to Islam’s defense, arguing that the demonstrations should be regarded as hate speech, which is illegal in Sweden when targeting an ethnicity or race. Both Swedish and Danish authorities condemned the book burnings, but the courts allowed them to continue.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan replied, “We will teach the arrogant Western people that it is not freedom of expression to insult the sacred values of Muslims.”

There is an abundance of media coverage for the Koran burnings and retaliation riots. But what is not reported is what sparked these burnings in the first place. Why is Europe’s hatred for Islam growing? Some chalk it up to racism. Others blame religious differences.

The mainstream media can’t fully explain what is behind this clash. But the Bible can. The growing tensions between Europe and an Islam-backed Middle Eastern power bloc were prophesied thousands of years ago. These Koran burnings are a symptom of this clash, not the cause.

Europe’s Immigration Crisis

In 2015, Europe underwent a population overhaul. That year, a record 1.3 million refugees poured into the 28 member states of the European Union. At the time, many news outlets praised Europe for its benevolence in accepting asylum seekers and condemned other countries for not offering to help. It didn’t take long for problems to unfold. Economic turmoil, cultural tensions and race riots ensued.

A year later, an overwhelming majority reported “disapproval” for the way the EU was handling the refugee crisis. Of the 10 nations surveyed, disapproval ratings ranged from 63 to 94 percent. Not a single country expressed approval.

In an opinion poll conducted by German firm insa Consulere last year, the majority said European nations need better border protection. Most respondents believed the EU should finance border walls in countries subject to illegal border crossings, which the EU currently has zero budget for.

The majority said they didn’t think it was realistic for the EU to take in the 70 million migrants it estimated needing over the next two decades. When asked if they supported “the relocation of immigrants from another EU member state” to their own country, only two out of 10 countries said yes.

Though covid-19 lowered numbers of refugees for a short period, immigration is rising again. In 2022, the amount of irregular border crossings into the EU reached its highest since 2016. The crisis is not over.

Islam Infiltration

In 2015, civil wars, economic woes and oppressive governments in the Middle East pushed millions to flee. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq more than quadrupled. Syria’s population is 87 percent Muslim, while roughly 99 percent of Iraqis and Afghans are Muslim.

In 2011, Pew Research projected that between 2010 and 2030, the number of Muslims in Europe would increase by 31.9 percent. That estimate was made before the refugee crisis. Between 2006 and 2017, the number of mosques in Denmark increased by 48 percent. In the Netherlands, asylum applications increased by 30 percent from 2021 to 2022, the majority of which came from four overwhelmingly Muslim countries: Syria, Turkey, Afghanistan and Yemen.

The majority of asylum seekers come from a Muslim background.

The media won’t talk about this. Even statistics are hard to come by because it is no longer acceptable to gather census data on religions.

In Sweden, the government refuses to publish data on the ethnicity or immigration status of criminals, despite a clear correlation between increases in crime and immigration.

Sweden received the second-most asylum applications per capita of any country in Europe in 2015. A 2017 Stockholm survey published by Expressen examined 192 individuals with links to criminal networks, according to police records. It found that a shocking 95 percent were migrants, when migrant was defined as having at least one foreign-born parent.

Police mask the correlation by using terms like “vulnerable areas” to describe places where criminal networks are most prevalent and the demographic is majority migrants.

Other countries are guilty of the same. French law prohibits questions regarding ethnicity or religion on censuses. As such, the racial demographic for crime statistics is unclear. To further muddle things, many French citizens of “foreign origin” are not counted as foreigners once they obtain citizenship.

Some insiders have spoken out. Retired police chief Didier Lallement wrote last year:

One out of every two crimes is committed by a foreigner, who are often in the country illegally. … It is clear that some of the newcomers are integrating through delinquency.

Many in Europe are waking up to the repercussions of their governments’ immigration policies.

Realizing Its Mistake

In the past year especially, the EU has been working to reverse the immigration trend.

Last month, the EU offered a €1 billion deal to Tunisia in a bid to halt immigration. Tunisian visa policy allows for around 100 nationalities to travel to the country without a visa, making it a stepping stone into Europe for sub-Saharan Africans. There has been a 292 percent growth in attempted crossings from Tunisia this year compared to last, according to EU border agency Frontex.

Throughout Europe, far-right groups are growing in popularity, in part due to their hard-line anti-immigration stances.

In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has surged in opinion polls, now ranking second in popularity. Earlier this week, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (cdu) suggested working with the AfD, which has a strong anti-immigration stance. Pollsters listed that as a reason for potentially voting for them.

Finland’s fear of migration has caused people to vote far-right groups into office. In June, four political parties battled about immigration before finally forming a coalition. The far-right Finn’s party, despite only coming onto the scene in recent years, emerged from the debates victorious with tighter immigration laws.

Sweden is starting to crack down on immigration as well. Last month, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson criticized his country’s immigration system in an opinion piece, writing:

Let me be clear: Massive immigration and poor integration simply do not work. Therefore, we are now changing the Swedish migration policy to the EU’s strictest. A no to asylum means no, and then you have to leave the country. It should be obvious but isn’t. Equally important is that a yes should mean that you really enter Swedish society.

Even Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has embraced anti-immigration legislation, despite leading a center-left party.

Rows over immigration are even causing governments in Europe to collapse. In the Netherlands, disagreements on imposing new immigration policy got so bad that the entire cabinet resigned. Prime Minister Mark Rutte wanted to tighten their laws. It didn’t go through because the smallest group in the coalition refused to budge.

Europeans are fed up with immigration, particularly Muslim immigration. This surge of Koran burnings makes that obvious.

Why is the media not covering the connection between these demonstrations and immigration? Mainstream news outlets are acting like the book burnings are motivated by a racist and irrational hatred for peaceful Muslims.

There may be some truth to that argument. But these book burnings stem from a legitimate grievance among Europeans: Muslim immigration. That is why so many EU nations are swinging to the right, calling for stricter border policies, and desecrating the book Islam holds sacred.

Prophesied Clash

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in “The Holy Roman Empire Goes Public—Big Time!”:

A trend is unfolding in Europe that you should keep a close watch on. Europeans have been besieged by immigrants from the Middle East, growing Muslim populations within their midst, cityscapes filling with mosques and minarets, portions of their cities turning into Muslim enclaves that local police dare not enter, even Islamic terrorist attacks.

And more and more Europeans are looking for solutions in their own history. Specifically, their religious history.

You need to closely watch this trend because it will eventually affect the whole world. Daniel 11 reveals there will be an end-time Islamist power, led by Iran, called “the king of the south.”

This power adopts a pushy policy against “the king of the north,” a Catholic German-led European bloc of 10 nations (Daniel 2:41-43). This power will be deeply intertwined with the Catholic church, meaning this clash has a lot to do with religion. (This is explained in our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.)

This German-led European power is prophesied to war against radical Islam, surrounding these Middle Eastern nations like a whirlwind (Daniel 11:40). Many mainstream commentators believe that burning the Koran is a bit extreme. But the Bible shows that acts like these are children’s play compared to what is coming.

There is a political hurricane brewing in Europe. Thankfully, the same Bible that warns of this coming terror also forecasts the most tremendous hope for mankind. Another Kingdom will crush all the kingdoms in this world (Daniel 2:44). This Kingdom of God is going to reign and increase forever (Isaiah 9:6-7). God’s plan is for everyone who has ever lived to have the chance to enter that Kingdom. That includes Muslims. That includes those burning the Koran. That also includes you.

Keep your eye on the European-Islam battleground. It reveals a deadly catastrophe on the horizon. But as it is fulfilled, it proves that there is a God in heaven whose prophecies stand, including the prophecy of the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this Earth in the near future.

To learn more about this coming clash, read Mr. Flurry’s free booklet The King of the South. For a detailed study into the history and prophecy of this emerging European power, request a free copy of The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.