For Western Europe’s ruling elites, protecting the rights of so-called asylum seekers has become more important than protecting their own citizens.

Recently, Germany provided a staggering example of this. An immigrant from Uganda raped a woman, but the German authorities refuse to expel him because the rapist claims to be gay and homosexuals are prosecuted in his home country.

The elites also refuse to defend our own identity, and today’s Dutch newspapers contain an example of that. A Protestant church proposes that the official holiday, which the Dutch enjoy for the Christian feast of Pentecost, be replaced by an official holiday on the Islamic feast of Eid-al-Fitr.

With this proposal, the Christian group says, it wants “to do justice to diversity in religion.” However, if there is one culture on earth which allows no diversity in religion whatsoever, it is Islam. Just look at Saudi-Arabia, where they do not even allow the construction of a single church.

I have picked these two examples because they pertain to the two most important issues Europe is currently facing: Mass immigration and the surge of Islam. If we do not want to be wiped away, our population replaced and our culture annihilated, it is vital that we start acting forcefully and courageously to protect our citizens and our civilisation.

Mass immigration is the first major issue we need to tackle. Those who think that since 2015 the worst is behind us, are wrong.

The African population is bound to quadruple from its present 1 billion to 4 billion by the end of the century. In the coming 30 years, the number of Africans will grow by more than one billion people. That is twice the population of the entire European Union. In fact, Africa’s current annual growth of over 30 million people per year is higher than the population of 22 of the EU’s 28 member states.

The demographic pressure will be enormous. One-third of the Africans want to move abroad, and many want to come to Europe. Last year, over 180,000 people crossed in shabby boats from Libya. And this is just the beginning. According to EU Commissioner Avramopoulos, at his very moment, 3 million migrants are waiting to enter Europe. How many terrorists, rapists, ISIS sympathisers and welfare abusers will there be among that number?

Michael Moller, the director of the United Nations office in Geneva warns that the migration process is “just going to accelerate. Young people all have cellphones and they can see what’s happening in other parts of the world, and that acts as a magnet,” he says. Indeed, they can see on their phones that, while fewer than 3% of last year’s migrants were legitimate asylum seekers of refugees fleeing warzones, hardly anyone is being sent back. Instead, they are being welcomed with generous welfare benefits, subsidised housing and public healthcare schemes!

And, so, the bell tolls for Europe. If Western Europe continues with its present open door policies, the population of the continent will simply be replaced. The potential arrival of possibly 1 billion Africans will simply dwarf the 700,000 million indigenous Europeans. Moreover, many of the would-be immigrants are Islamic, which brings us to the second big issue we are confronting.

The Pew Forum recently revealed that the world is becoming ever more Islamic. Between today and 2060, the number of Muslims worldwide will grow 70 percent. That is over twice as fast as Christians, three times as quickly as Hindus, and almost five times faster than Jews. By 2060, Islam will have almost as many adherents as Christianity. And soon after, it is bound to become the largest belief system on earth. The entire world will become one giant Islamic state if we do nothing.

Western Europe will be one of the first dominos to fall to Islam’s expansion. In several European countries, populations are only growing because of immigration. Muhammad is already the most popular name among newborn boys in major cities in Britain, France, the Netherland, Belgium and elsewhere.

In 2016, my country, the Netherlands, saw the largest population growth in 15 years. However, this was caused entirely by immigration. Last February, Elsevier Magazine, the Dutch equivalent of Newsweek, calculated what the effects of immigration would be for our country. Rising costs would lead to the total collapse of the welfare state. But, if immigration were unrestricted, we would also see the Dutch Islamic population grow from to present 6% to 31% by 2060!

In the case of a restricted, yet still “generous” immigration policy, the Islamic population in the Netherlands would grow to “just” 19%. In case of continuation at the present levels, it would be 14%. And even if all immigration were to be restricted with immediate effect, meaning that we close our borders now, it is still going to double to 12%.

History shows, however, that the more Islamic a society becomes, the more violent and intolerant it becomes toward non-Muslims. Islam is not a peace-loving religion, but a totalitarian ideology which aims to submit everyone to Islamic law. The biggest threat to the world is not global warming, but global Islam.

The more Islamic our country becomes, the less safe it is going to be for us. No less than two-thirds of Muslims in the Netherlands find Islamic rules more important than our secular democratic laws. Research from the University of Amsterdam shows that as many as 11 per cent of Dutch Muslims find it acceptable to use violence in the name of Islam. That is more than 100,000 Muslims in the Netherlands. Twice the number of soldiers in our Dutch army.

Ronald Reagan once said that “government’s first duty is to protect the people.” Polls indicate that, all over Europe, people are well aware that Islamic immigration poses a threat to the continent. A sizable majority in each of the 28 EU countries feels this way.

We are in a race against time. Unfortunately, the political elites of most European countries totally disregard the will of the people. Like, for example, the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, they are cowardly weak. We cannot accept that. Our existence it at stake. If we want to survive as free nations and free peoples and avoid being replaced, we have to act now.

Geert Wilders, MP, is a member of the Dutch Parliament and the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in The Netherlands