A recent report from the Gatestone Institute shows that an alarming number of radical Islamic terrorists have infiltrated several European nations. With the recent increase in jihadist attacks in the United Kingdom, the Western World should take notice.

According to the report, 66,000 official extremists are living in just four nations: Belgium, Germany, Britain, and France. After taking advantage of Europe’s lax immigration laws, these jihadists are hiding in plain sight.

Thanks to the flawed policies that allow immigrants to come from Middle Eastern nations without first being properly vetted, members of ISIS and other radical Islamist groups have been able to hide amongst the many refugees coming into Europe. Over time, extremists have established predominantly Islamic communities separate from the mainstream culture of their host nations. Extremists can blend into these communities as they plan out their operations. The report states:

These Islamists have built a powerful infrastructure of terror inside Europe’s cities. These terror bases are self-segregated, multicultural enclaves in which extremist

 Muslims promote Islamic fundamentalism and implement Islamic law, Sharia — with the Tower Hamlets Taliban of East London; in the French banlieues [suburbs], and in The Hague’s “sharia triangle“, known as “the mini-caliphate,” in the Netherlands. These extremist Muslims can comfortably get their weapons from the Balkans, where, thanks to Europe’s open borders, they can travel with ease. 

Extremists tend to go unnoticed in these communities because the authorities rarely venture into these neighborhoods. This gives the radicals more latitude to plot their attacks. These are not ragtag groups of angry Muslims – they are highly-trained and well-organized. The fact that they can obtain weapons with such ease should scare native citizens across Europe.

Why doesn’t Europe adopt stricter immigration policies? Multiculturalism. European leaders are more concerned with building a multicultural society than they are with protecting their citizens and culture.

Because of Europe’s misguided commitment to multiculturalism, immigrants are not required to assimilate into the culture once they arrive. Instead of adopting the values and culture of the nation, they bring Middle Eastern Islamic values. However, it doesn’t stop there. They are not only bringing the values of their home country; they are attempting to impose Islamism on European society. In some ways, they are succeeding.

The United States should take note of the mistakes of our European counterparts. The wave of terrorist attacks should be enough for any reasonable person to see what can happen when a country fails to protect its borders, culture, and people. While we have not experienced nearly the number of terrorist attacks that have occurred in Europe, we cannot afford to become complacent.

The incidents we have seen in the U.S. are primarily perpetrated by people who became radicalized on our soil. Like Europe, we are failing to require that immigrants adopt American values rather than retain values that are not compatible with our society. This is one of the leading causes of homegrown extremism. When discussing a study on jihadist attacks in the U.S. The National Review’s James Jay Carafano notes:

Most of the foreign-born terrorists in the study “likely radicalized several years after their entry to the United States, limiting the ability of screening and vetting officials to prevent their entry.” That last bit, a truism, would naturally apply to the native-born as well.

If we want to avoid the same pitfalls as Europe, we must be willing to defend our values. We cannot allow the values of other cultures to override our own. Unfortunately, the left strives to create the same type of multicultural societies as Europe. In the name of political correctness, they reject the idea of E Pluribus Unum. If we fail to preserve who we are as a nation, we will soon meet the same fate as Germany, Britain, Belgium, and France. Let us not make their mistakes.