There’s an excellent Australian op-ed that addresses the predicament Europe finds itself in. The author concludes that a strong rise of right-wing European nationalism is almost an inevitable response to the failures resulting from years of extreme multiculturalism.

Elsewhere in the West, a renewed clamour for national identity is a predictable and overdue response to the permissive extremes of the decades-long embrace of no-rules multiculturalism. The trend has been provoked by the rise of militant Islam, with its own competitive identity that transcends national borders.

. . .The new reality sits uncomfortably with the so-called progressive view that favours unbridled tolerance for the minority and a loathing for the dominant culture or conventional view. These themes are explored by Francis Fukuyama, professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, who says that if existing citizens do not sufficiently value their national citizenship, they can scarcely expect newcomers to value it. The potential cost of inaction is evident in comments by Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes in The Australian today that opinion surveys in Britain consistently show 50 per cent of British Muslims would like to see the introduction of sharia Islamic law. This is akin to exchanging the constitution for the Koran.

Professor Fukuyama hits the nail square on the head. Modern Europe is so disgusted by its own existence and overwhelmed with Western guilt that it’s practically inviting a cultural invasion. How can people be expected to care for their country’s existence when nations are evil constructs to be scorned because they cause war, when values are to be dismissed because the adoption of certain beliefs itself represents a rejection of others, or when you can’t be proud of who you are because that means you think you are better than others? The problem is when a strong transnational ethos such as Islamism moves in and takes advantage of the identity void created by the self-hatred that comes from excessive multiculturalism.

. . .Unfortunately for the West, the liberal tolerance shown by the Left to minority groups has not always come with reciprocal obligations. Professor Fukuyama argues that Europe’s failure to better integrate its Muslim population is a ticking time bomb that has already contributed to terrorism. It is bound to provoke a sharper backlash from populist groups, and may even threaten European democracy itself.

At this point I’d have to say we’re well beyond “may…threaten”.