Francis Schaeffer: ‘A co-belligerent is a person with whom I do not agree on all sorts of vital issues, but who, for whatever reasons of their own, is on the same side in a fight for some specific issue of public justice.’

Most readers of the Spectator Australia will not need me to remind them that we are fighting and losing a culture war. The results of this conflict will define the future of everything we value and believe in.

However, for a while now, I’ve wondered. Where exactly does Islam fit into the secular scheming of the radical-left?

The left and Islam are in uneasy coalition

It is the left who have been the biggest cheerleaders for Islam. It was they who flung open the doors to mass Islamic immigration. Indeed, they sent out ‘search parties’ designed to ‘rub the right’s nose in diversity.’

Their plan was executed successfully. By 2030, conservative estimates predict that there will be 5.6 million Muslims in the United Kingdom, 5.6 million in Germany and 6.9 million in France. Already, major European cities have considerable Islamic minorities. 22 per cent of Birmingham is now Islamic. Likewise, 40 per cent of Marseille. Australia is a little way behind. Nonetheless, the recent national census revealed a 77 per cent increase in the Islamic population in the last decade. The faith is now Australia’s second largest.

But why did they do it?

Islam is: Patriarchal, traditional, collectivist and pious. Yes, the modern left is similarly authoritarian. However, the values and ideas it endeavours to propagate stand in vivid contrast with Quranic principle. Hedonism, Individualism and post-materialism are the theology of the left.

There are two primary reasons for the lefts vehement support for Islam. Firstly, their desire to undermine any remaining remanence of Christian cultural identity. Second, their historic opposition to anybody in a position of authority. As Islamic arrivals are relatively new additions to the societal social fabric, they do remain somewhat underrepresented in: ‘the corridors of power.’ Therefore, the left feel that they owe it to Muslims to privilege the Islamic community.

This is a blinding contradiction. Liberals now control and define every institution in the English-speaking world. It is they who are the establishment. They who are the West’s dominant cultural movement.

Comparatively, Ben Shapiro argues that the left aligns with Islam because they believe that multicultural-warfare is a quicker and more effective way to bring down civilisation than their previously preferred class-battle. They imagine, that they can unite with other demographics who wish to see society change, bring everything crashing down, and then: ‘build on the ashes’.

In reality, Islam and the left are not the firm friends many imagine them to be. They are simply allies of convenience.

Each attempt to use the other to further their own objectives. The left is using Islam to undermine monoculturalism and topple an establishment, that, ironically, they control. Further, they recognise that, at least in the short-term, an influx of foreign citizens will result in an increased vote share. Finally, they wish to signal their own virtue.





Correspondingly, Islam uses the left to increase the funding and autonomy of its own community. It also uses the left to buy the precious time it requires to grow in number and in influence.

This coalition will eventually be destroyed

Neither party has the least bit of respect for the true values of the other. The left desires a secular and ‘modern’ Islam that ceases to be a religion, instead becoming a placid cultural identity that can be of some use to them. London’s Mayor Sadik Kahn is their ideal model. Likewise, Muslims have no appetite for the ‘gender-fluidity’ and destructive hedonism of the left.

Interestingly, we have a historic illustration that evidences the long-term incompatibility of the two groups. In 1979 Iran, secular leftists joined forces with Islamist guerrillas to topple the Shah. At first, this joint operation was very successful, and the combined front forced the Shah from power. Then, the Islamic Republican Party and their enforcers in Hezbollah moved quickly. The same liberal movements who had worked with the Islamists were rapidly and efficiently crushed, and prominent activists executed or jailed.

This marriage of convenience cannot go on indefinitely in the West. Muslims have not spoken out against extreme and aggressive social liberalism because their communities remain, to a large extent, detached and sheltered from it. In addition, the power of the close-knit Islamic family unit allows them to maintain a counter-narrative as compelling as any found outside of it.

Still, at some point in the future, the Cultural Marxists will no-longer be able to tolerate the unbearable non-compliance. They will seek to enforce their Orwellian sexual radicalism upon the children of the Islamic community. By this point, the Islamic community will be strong and numerous enough to resist the advances of the left.

The result – will be conflict.

If Islam is no friend of the left – could it ever be a friend of the right?

I understand if conservatives recoil at this point. Obviously, I remember the horrendous acts of murderous terror – a great number of which – carried out in my own nation. Likewise, I understand that Islamic culture is entirely different from our own. Growing up in Northern England I was an Islamophobe. I did not dislike Muslims, but I was truly frightened of their cultural ascent.

In addition, there are certainly risks to be found in co-belligerence, and it must be acknowledged that Muslims may not want or need to work with ‘non-believers’.

But, there are also opportunities. Working with Islam would not only bolster our coalition against the most disturbed ideas of the left. It might also invigorate Christianity while providing a powerful opportunity for evangelism. Data shows that the number of Christians converting to Islam is a tiny fraction of the number of Muslims who convert to Christianity.

Many great conservatives see Islam as our biggest threat and I understand why. Indeed, I conceded that it is possible that continual battle with Islam might be the best way to see our own independent identity restored.

However, it is also possible that the real culture war is not between Muslims and Non-Muslims – but between militantly secular Cultural Marxists, and those with faith and/or traditional decency.

If this is the case, it might be possible to create a ‘coalition of believers’ within the West. Underlying all faiths is a core set of conservative morals. When each faith group stands alone – they usually fall. Together, they could compete with a left possessed by its determined crusade to create a dystopian conception of ‘Heaven on Earth.’

But religion is dying I hear you cry. The mainstream media tells you that religion is dying. Indeed, they are deeply invested in the narrative that global godlessness will soon reign.

The reality? In 2015, the percentage of the global population who identified as ‘religiously unaffiliated’, (defined as atheists, agnostics and those who do not consider themselves an adherent of any specific religion) stood at 16 per cent. By 2060, this is predicted to fall to 13 per cent.

My message to the Islamic community is a simple one. A couple of weeks ago, I detailed the militant attack on those in Britain who dared to oppose same-sex marriage. The left hasn’t come for you yet, but I promise you, if you continue to speak out in favour of your religious teachings – sooner or later they will.

Conservatism has the potential to offer Islam real belonging in Europe, by working towards meaningful multiculturalism. A society not based on vacuous buzzwords such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘respect’, nor built on globalist warmongering. Instead, a society founded on the shared values of life, marriage, paternalism, patriarchy and faithfulness.

Of course, all this is hypothetical and conservatives must be careful of any panacea. However, unless something changes rapidly, conservatism will be dead in the lifetime of our youngest generation. It’s certainly time for some blue-sky thinking.

Growing up in Evangelical churches and Catholic schools, my first political identity was shaped by the former in opposition to the latter. It didn’t take me long to realise that there were more important battles.

If we let Cultural Marxism define, change and own Islam, then we are finished.

Islam is not going anywhere. It can be a powerful enemy, or just maybe, it can be a valuable ally.

Illustration: Richard Dawkins/Twitter.

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.