Islam is growing rapidly in Western Europe. According to the Pew Research Center, France has a Muslim population of 7.5%, the Netherlands of 6%, Germany of 5.8%, Austria of 5.4%, the United Kingdom of 4.8%, Sweden of 4.6%.

The real figures are even higher. Indeed, Pew’s figures predate the refugee tsunami of 2015, when 1 million immigrants flocked to Europe, most of them Muslims.

Last week, The Washington Post wrote that “annual net immigration into Europe is projected to increase steadily from current levels for another 20 years.” The paper points out that by 2069, the 28 current members of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, will see a net immigration of 77 million people. This will have severe consequences for Europe’s culture.

The Post writes euphemistically that Europe will become “substantially more diverse than it is today.” The truth, however, is that Europe will Islamize. If there is anything opposed to diversity, then it is Islam.

As a result, Europe will become less free and less safe. Islam is an existential threat to Western civilisation. No honest individual can say with a straight face that it is a doctrine of peace or freedom. Just read the Koran with its murderous verses. They are a license to kill.

We can see it on the television news almost every single day. Terror attacks in Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, Orlando. The very word Islam means submission. Islam commands the submission of every nation on earth to Sharia law, if necessary by war. It is inhumane. It is totalitarian. Everywhere it settles, it brings hell with it. That is why immigration from Islamic countries is so dangerous.

And while Europe’s ruling classes are cultural relativists, who no longer believe in the superiority of our own Judeo-Christian culture and, having lost this belief, are no longer willing to defend it, the good news is that the people in Europe are neither stupid nor blind.

This week, the publication of an EU-wide opinion poll, conducted by an Hungarian think tank in each of the 28 EU member states, was cause for optimism. It revealed that 70% of Europeans see Muslim migration as a serious threat. And that those who still prefer to turn a blind eye to the danger are a small minority in every single EU member state.

In each of the 28 countries, the think tank had a representative sample of at least 1,000 people questioned. 65% of Europeans realise that the influx of immigrants increases crime levels – a majority in every country. 65% also realise that it increases the threat of terrorism – again a majority everywhere, with the exception of tiny Luxembourg, where immigrants are predominantly affluent foreigners. A staggering 87% acknowledge that a terrorist attack, like the one in France in November last year, can also happen in their own country.

And 63% of all Europeans are aware that immigration imposes a risk on the cultural integrity of the countries impacted by it. In the Netherlands this figure is 81%, the highest of all EU countries, closely followed by Sweden. Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom.

If so many people, in so many countries – as diverse as Finland and Greece, or Ireland and Romania – feel this way, politicians should draw their conclusions. As always, the people realise far better what is happening than the elites, living in their ivory towers.

Ronald Reagan used to say that “the heart of America is always sound, and America’s judgment is always correct. And if a President knows that and hews to the wisdom of the people, then he can be certain he will have done his job well.” The same applies in Europe.

Reagan also said that we must “believe in trusting the wisdom of the people rather than taking power away from them and concentrating it in other hands.” The latter is exactly what has happened in Europe in the past decades. Nation-states were dismantled and their sovereignty was transferred to the European Union, which has badly mishandled the immigration crisis. 77% of all Europeans, and a majority in every EU member state, agree with that.

The wisdom of the people commands us to do something about the threat of Islam. Our governments must face reality before it is too late. Islam does not belong in Europe. We must stop all immigration from Islamic countries and start de-islamizing. We must deal with the facts of Islam’s violent and totalitarian nature, because it we fail to do so, Islam will deal with us.

We must treat Islam the same way we treat other totalitarian ideologies, such as Communism and Nazism. Perhaps we should even consider outlawing Islam. Here, too, Ronald Reagan, one of the greatest leaders of the free world of the past century, can serve as an inspiration. “Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose,” he once said.

And here is what our strategy on Islam should be: We win, they lose.

Geert Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), which is currently the biggest party in the Dutch polls. He is the author of “Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me” (Regnery)