A senior cardinal has said there is “no question that Islam wants to govern the world” and the only way to save Western civilisation is to return it to its Christian roots.

Cardinal Raymond Burke said that while Muslims were “lovely people”, their religion teaches that it should dominate the state, and any country with a Muslim majority must submit to Islamic law.

Speaking to Religion News Service, the American cardinal criticised Christian leaders who “simply think that Islam is a religion like the Catholic faith or the Jewish faith.”

“That simply is not objectively the case,” he claimed.

“When they become a majority in any country then they have the religious obligation to govern that country,” the cardinal added. “If that’s what the citizens of a nation want, well, then, they should just allow this to go on. But if that’s not what they want, then they have to find a way to deal with it.”

He also said that areas of France and Belgium have become “no-go zones” that are effectively “little Muslim states”.

When asked how the West should respond to increasing Islamisation, Cardinal Burke said: “I think the appropriate response is to be firm about the Christian origin of our own nation, and certainly in Europe, and the Christian foundations of the government, and to fortify those.”

“We have to say no, our country is not free to become a Muslim state,” he added.

The cardinal was speaking ahead of the publication of his book Hope For The World: To Unite All Things In Christ, which takes the form of an extended interview.

The Catholic Herald quotes the cardinal as saying in the book: “Islam is a religion that, according to its own interpretation, must also become the State. The Koran, and the authentic interpretations of it given by various experts in Koranic law, is destined to govern the world.

“In reality, there is no place for other religions, even though they may be tolerated, as long as Islam has not succeeded in establishing its sovereignty over the nations and over the world.”

Cardinal Raymond Burke is patron of the Sovereign Order of Malta and is seen as one of the leading figures among traditionalist Catholics. He has become known for his uncompromising conservative views and has a strong affinity for the traditional Latin Mass.