On Sunday, pro-Palestinian activists invaded the embarkment lobby of the Israeli airline El-Al in the Roissy Airport, north of Paris, chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to the Jews,” and prevented passengers from checking in.

Witnesses on the scene at the Roissy Airport said “a wild horde terrorized, threatened and intimidated passengers.” The activists were responding to a call for protests from the extremist organization EuroPalestine. Around 150 activists participated, according to EuroPalestine’s webpage, and the event was intended to protest “the military campaign announced by the Jewish Defense League against the Palestinians”(translation ours).

France’s National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism condemned the disturbance and appealed to local authorities to “stop the aggression and discrimination” and to bring those responsible “to justice for disturbing the public order and inciting hatred.”

The Sunday protest came just two days after 200 Muslims defied a new French ban on outdoor prayer and took to the sidewalks and streets of Paris to pray. Paris announced last Thursday that it was outlawing outdoor prayer, with officials saying they would begin to enforce the law on Friday. Two hundred Muslims defied the law and prayed on the streets in the neighborhood of La Goutte d’Or, according to Le Parisien.

Regarding the new law, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said he harbored no ill will toward Islam, but wanted prayers out of the public eye because France was a secular country. In December 2010, the head of France’s far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, described activities like street prayers and protests as “occupation without tanks or soldiers.” Le Pen is expected to run for the French presidency next year, and polls show that her anti-Islam message is resonating with 40 percent of French voters, which places her ahead of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Why are so many French voters concerned about Islam’s incursion into France’s public sphere? Because Islam’s presence in France is mushrooming with mercurial speed.

On Saturday, the Catholic News Agency published the results of a new study showing that there are now more practicing Muslims in France than practicing Catholics. Although 64 percent of French people claim to be Roman Catholic, only 2.9 percent of the population actually practices the Catholic religion. But 3.8 percent of the country’s population practices the Muslim faith.

Another study shows that mosques are now being built at a much faster rate than Catholic churches. The Muslim Council of France last month said that around 150 new mosques are currently under construction across the nation. The Catholic Church, by contrast, has built only 20 new churches in France during the past decade, and has closed more than 60 churches. La Croix says that many of these closed churches are now destined to become mosques. With almost 500 new mosques having been built between 2001 and 2006, it is clear that the presence of Islam in France is rapidly expanding. And a leading French cleric recently called for the number of mosques in France to be doubled again to meet the burgeoning demand.

The rising tide of Islam in France is undeniable.

France has often been called the “eldest daughter of the Catholic Church,” because French Catholics have maintained unbroken communion with Rome since the second century. But many leading European bishops have said that Islam will eclipse Catholicism across the Continent. In 1999, Archbishop Giuseppe Bernardini recalled a talk he had with a Muslim leader: “Thanks to your democratic laws, we will invade you,” the Muslim leader told Giuseppe. “Thanks to our religious laws, we will dominate you.”

Islamism’s boldness and pervasiveness in France has multiplied significantly since 1999 when that conversation took place, and the outdoor prayer ban is not Paris’s first response to the push. Laws forbidding students from wearing headscarves in public schools went into effect in April. And a ban on wearing the full Muslim veil in public came into effect around the same time.

The increase in anti-Islamic sentiment and the rising popularity of Le Pen have implications beyond the borders of France. “The younger Le Pen’s success is significant not just to France, but also as a model for other European countries experiencing the same level of social angst over German-imposed austerity measures and wider EU institutions,” wrote U.S. think tank Stratfor in January. “France has led European political evolutions in the past, especially when it comes to the politics of the left. It may do so yet again, this time with regard to the politics of the right. Marine Le Pen could present a ‘proof of concept’ of a far-right leader with mainstream appeal that catches on in the rest of the Continent” (January 15).

Anti-Islamism is growing in popularity throughout Europe. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, the anti-Muslim member of parliament, led his party into a partnership with the center-right government. Wilders wants to ban “the fascist Koran,” outlaw building mosques, and levy a tax of €1,000 a year on anyone wearing the hijab. In 2009, 57.5 percent of Swiss citizens voted to outlaw the construction of new minarets.

Norway’s far-right Progress Party is now the second most powerful party in parliament. Finland’s right-wing True Finns won 19 percent of the vote in elections in April making it the country’s third-largest party. Denmark’s right-wing People’s Party works with the governing coalition and has called Muslims “cancer cells” and “a plague on Europe.”

As Islam’s push against France and other European nations intensifies, more Europeans will wake up to the threat of radical Islam and will demand their politicians take action. To understand where this is leading, read our article “Catholic Europe vs. Islamic Hordes: Round 2.”