“The Third Muslim Invasion of Europe is entering its mature stage by sea,” I observed in these pages in June, as thousands of Middle Eastern and African illegal immigrants sailed from Libya to Italy day after day. In the intervening four months, in a dramatic development, a new southeastern land route was stormed by a quarter of a million people—mostly Syrians, Iraqis, and Afghanis—who made their way from Turkey to Greece, and then across Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary to the wealthy E.U. core. The total influx for 2015 by land and sea will likely exceed one million souls.
The term invasion is not hyperbole. Europe’s old core does not lack the technical means, but it lacks the moral fiber to defend itself. Its political elites treat the process as inevitable, demonize all resistance as “xenophobic” or “racist,” and exert pressure on the periphery—e.g., the fence-building Hungary—to give up any pretense of border control.
A demographically vibrant rival civilization, inherently hostile to all that Europe stands for and unburdened by self-doubt, senses the weakness and is taking audacious advantage of the situation. “Tell Brussels we are coming, no matter what,” a young man from Syria told news...