“We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe — without swords, without guns, without conquest — will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades,” said late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2006. Virtually all Western politicians and prelates have refused to accept such pronouncements at face value, though, and instead strike politically correct tones. But this isn’t because they perceive the truth, says a top American cardinal, but because they’re too weak to accept it.

“Muslims have as their ultimate goal conquest and power over the world,” said Cardinal Raymond Burke (shown) in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Giornale. In the interview, just reported by news outlet Breitbart on Saturday, Burke also warned that the West’s “supine” stance and moral corruption have made it “easy prey for conquest.”

The 68-year-old cardinal, a former head of the Vatican’s supreme court and the current patron of the Order of Malta, also related how common Gadhafi's 2006 sentiments are among Muslims, saying, “Several times I have heard Islamists explaining: ‘What we failed to do with weapons in the past, we are doing today with birth rate and immigration.’ The population is changing. If this keeps up, in countries like Italy, the majority will be Muslim.”

Muslim immigration into the West has long been a contentious issue, even more so lately as waves of Middle Eastern migrants have flooded into Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States. As for births, virtually every Western nation has long had a fertility rate (FR) below replacement level (2.1 children per couple), with Western Europe’s average being approximately 1.4. In parts of Italy (and Spain), in fact, the FR is less than one. Moreover, as I wrote in 2008, “Europe’s 65-year-olds now outnumber her 14-year-olds, and one German province had to close 220 schools in 2006. Children were present in 80 percent of U.S. households a century ago; that number is now 32 percent.” In contrast, the Muslim FR in Europe is above replacement level — which means the replacement of native Europeans is in progress. (Note: The media sometimes report on European “baby booms,” never pointing out that this is solely attributable to Muslim fecundity.)

As for Muslim im/migration, it can be part of “an ancient strategy, straight from the Islamic playbook … called the Hijra … the migration or journey,” informs Dutch writer Joost Niemöller. “Hijra is one of the most effective methods of jihad which requires no military or wars.”

Of course, while not every Muslim migrant enters the West with conquest in mind, this intention is, again, often voiced. In 2006, New York’s Sun reported that the “Internet edition of the Norwegian daily Dagbladet interviewed a Kurdish Iraqi Islamist, Mullah Krekar, on March 13. ‘Look at the development of the population in Europe, where the number of Muslims increases like mosquitoes.… By 2050, 30% of the European population will be Muslim,’ he said.” I reported last December on a migrant who unabashedly told an Arabic television station, “My main goal for leaving Syria is to lead [European] people to the acceptance of Islam.” And Muslim refugee Dr. Mudar Zahran revealed in an interview last October that if you “read Arab magazines and Arab newspapers, they are talking about, ‘Good job! Now we’re going to conquest [sic] Europe [via the current migration].’ So it’s not even a secret.”

And it’s certainly no secret to Cardinal Burke. Explaining to Il Giornale why Islam threatened the West and was incompatible with Christianity, he stated, “Islam is a threat in the sense that for the true Muslim, Allah must rule the world. Christ said in the Gospel, ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.’ In contrast, the Islamic religion, which is based on the law of the Koran, aims to govern all countries where there are Muslims. While they are the minority they cannot enforce their will, but when they become the majority, they must apply the Sharia.”

The cardinal then warned that this is already apparent in the West, referring to what have been dubbed “no-go zones” and saying, “Today there are enclaves, entire neighborhoods, in Europe where there is in fact a Muslim regime,” a “a state within a state.”

Burke went on to say that this is nothing new. “The problem is that Muslims aim for expansion. The whole history of the Islamic presence in Europe is an attempt to conquer it,” he stated. The cardinal was referring to how, with Islam’s birth in 622 A.D., medieval Christendom became subject to continual Muslim invasion. In fact, the Mideast and North Africa were mostly Christian until falling to the sword of Allah. Muslims then mounted their first invasion of Europe in 711 and got within 125 miles of Paris before being stopped at the Battle of Poitier (or Tours) in 732. And Muslims twice reached the gates of Vienna, in 1529 and 1683.

What is new, though, is a “corruption of the West” that makes armed invasion unnecessary. As Burke put it, “There are not enough families. We supinely accept practices that are contrary to the natural law, such as abortion or the so-called marriage between persons of the same sex. It is proof that we are not strong enough in faith, and easy prey for conquest.” The cardinal also spoke of the related intellectual corruption, stating, “Many people do not understand what Islam really is. They create these slogans, that we all believe in the same God, we are all united by love and so on. It’s not true.”

The “same God” thesis is common. It would seem to be based on the idea (some would say “rationalization”) that since Christians, Muslims, and Jews all believe in one God, and there is only one God, there’s no other God to believe in. But this misses the point. To wit: Different groups can believe in “morality,” but their conceptions of it can vary wildly. Likewise, Muslims believe in one God, alright, but what is their conception of God? Did He shed His blood for us or demand we shed others’ blood for Him?

Related to this, what conception of love does your conception of God involve? For a glimpse into Muslim thought, consider a story related years ago by theologian and Franciscan University of Steubenville professor Scott Hahn. While dining with a Muslim, who I believe was a scholar, the subject of God as Father arose. The Muslim took exception, insisting that God is not “Father.” As he put it (I’m paraphrasing), “I love my dog. But if I move to a new building that does not allow dogs, I will kill my dog.” Professor Hahn said his reaction was, “With love like that, who needs hate!”

Speaking of love and hate, Burke further lamented Western weakness, stating, “Islam, through Sharia, their law, will rule the world and permit violence against infidels, such as Christians. But we find it hard to recognize this reality and to respond by defending the Christian faith.”

Yet you can’t defend what you don’t have. Barna Group president David Kinnaman, after conducting research on faith, stated that “Americans’ dedication to Jesus is, in most cases, a mile wide and an inch deep.” And in Western Europe this narrows down to a millimeter, with more than 50 percent of its people identifying as “irreligious.” Therein lies the real cause of Western weakness, for atheism, like anarchy, is never a permanent state of affairs.