GETTY - SPLASH Our sentimental solidarity achieves nothing

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As the Paris massacre so grimly demonstrates we are now living with the terrible consequences of an alien invasion that has been forced on European societies without any consent. Last weekend's bloodbath in the French capital was the gruesome but inevitable result of the political class's disastrous attachment to the twin dogmas of mass immigration and cultural diversity. Because of its open borders, Europe now has a huge Muslim population in which jihadism flourishes. And we in Britain are right in the line of fire. According to MI5 there are probably around 450 radicals in our midst, hardened by experience in Syria. The process of demographic Islamification has been recently fuelled by the lunatic decision by our rulers, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to welcome a colossal, unceasing influx of so-called refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This act of criminal folly has all too predictably been exploited by IS, who claimed in September that they had smuggled no fewer than 4,000 of their operatives into Europe disguised as refugees.

West fails to address reality of extremism

Now we can see this was no idle boast for at least two of the Paris killers had arrived in France via the refugee route. On Friday Merkel struck a defiant note over the migrant crisis, declaring she would continue "to fight for my vision". NEVER was political defiance more offensive. With so much blood on her hands she should resign in disgrace. The immigration catastrophe has been compounded by the elite's commitment to a pernicious creed of multi-culturalism, which has meant migrants, instead of properly integrating, have been encouraged to cling to the customs, practices and even languages of their native lands. It has been a recipe for social division and moral disintegration. Eager to display their cultural sensitivity the authorities consistently fail even to confront barbarism and extremism in their midst, as happened on an epic scale in the Rotherham scandal where Muslim sex gangs were allowed to abuse white girls with impunity. In typically fatuous remarks at the weekend Labour's ultra-Left leader Jeremy Corbyn said "the events in Paris were an attack on multi-cultural society," adding that "we stand for the unity of all communities".

GETTY A vigil is held for the victims of the Paris terror attacks

He could not be more wrong. There can be no unity without a common identity, a spirit of national allegiance and a sense of mutual trust. That is why the rhetoric from the EU politicians about Paris sounds so pathetically hollow. For decades, in their fixation with diversity and federalism, they have fought a relentless war against the concepts of borders, sovereignty, defence and nationhood. Yet now, surveying the wreckage they have created, they have the nerve to promise that they will fight "the terrorist threat with all necessary means and ruthless determination". In the same vein French President François Hollande pledged "pitiless" action against the Islamists, including the temporary closure of the French border. But if he now thinks border controls will make the French public safer why has he long been such a passionate advocate of free movement? The institutionalised hypocrisy is at its worst in the failure to address the reality of extreme Islam. Every terrorist atrocity in the West sparks another bout of guilt-ridden introspection as to why Muslims feel so alienated.

PA The London Eye is illuminated with the colours of France following the massacre

The Paris massacre is no different. We are told that the responsibility lies with French air strikes in Syria or intervention in Mali or the ban on the burka or poor housing for Muslims. Yet the problem is not France, it is Islam. The Paris horror was just the latest in a catalogue of Islamic terrorism that includes mass killings in New York, London, Bali, Thailand, Madrid, Sydney, Mumbai. The truth is that wherever Islam fundamentalism has any influence there is conflict, misery and oppression. President Obama said that the Paris massacre "attacked the values we all share". That was another piece of cowardly obfuscation. Too many Muslims do not share our values of pluralism and individual rights. They believe in theocracy, not democracy, in triumphalist obedience rather than tolerance of other faiths. That is why there is such savage persecution of Christians in countries where Muslims are in a majority. Violence is endemic to fundamentalist Islam, a trait that prompted the great Trinidadian writer VS Naipaul to describe it as "sanctified rage".