As a civic-minded internationalist, I’ve long supported globalization as the best solution for our shared humanity. Though, the Brexit referendum has made me reevaluate my long-standing position.



While leaving the EU gives Russia the upper hand in the Continent, remaining in the bloc would have left the floodgates open to uncontrolled immigration and ensured the eventual Islamization of the UK. For British children and future generations, losing access to single market and other economic advantages is less of a setback than the risk of cultural suicide posed by the pan-Islamic movement and global jihadist insurgency, both of which have been enabled by unfettered globalization.



I speak not as a bigot but as a classical liberal and as an ex-Muslim gay atheist who has been persecuted for my sexuality and heresy, in my homeland, Afghanistan, and shunned by Muslims in the US. So my intention is not to marginalize but to help Muslims emancipate themselves from the mental prison they have entrapped themselves in.



This is why it irks me when the regressive left and their Islamist allies call the far right and populist nationalist parties racist and xenophobic while refusing to push back against the regressive strains of Islamic thought. I can empathize with conservatives who defend their secular democratic culture from a theocratic ideological system bent on replacing the Constitution with the Quran. How can it be fear mongering when Islamic law is already a reality for nearly a quarter of the world’s population and 85 Sharia courts operate parallel to the British legal system. A recent ICM poll showed that 23 percent of British Muslims support the introduction of Sharia law to replace British law.



Multiculturalism cannot be a one-way street whereby westerners are forced to dilute their identity and surrender their sovereignty while Muslim communities segregate themselves and impose a purist interpretation of Islam on everyone. Consider Operation Trojan Horse and the takeover of radical Salafi Muslims in Birmingham schools or the male sexual grooming and mass rape scandals that have plagued heavily Muslim populated towns across Britain.



As Islam has flourished in the EU over the past few decades, secular liberalism has hardly made a dent in the Muslim-majority world. No wonder then why nativists won the UK referendum. Brexiters were disillusioned by insular Muslim nations within an open British nation and fearful of ISIS turning the EU into a battlefield for the expansion of the caliphate.



At this juncture, globalist elites have to address this two-prong conundrum. First, how to assimilate Muslim immigrants into European life and delegitimize both the religious provincialism and the extremist ideology of Islam. Second, how to get Muslim heads-of-state to usher reforms that are necessary for liberal social values to take root in the Muslim world, which is the only way to reverse the tide of refugees and terrorism over the long haul.



Brexit was obviously a rejection of global governance as much as it was a contempt for the culture of Islam. If globalists can neutralize the threat posed by Islamic culture, I trust that the liberal world order can be saved. Until this happens, we can expect other countries within the EU to follow the Brexit lead.