Of European cities which have been irrevocably transformed by mass migration from the Muslim world, Paris does not rank at the top of the list. A quarter of its population isn’t Muslim, like the gang-infested, crime-ridden former port city of Marseille, nor a fifth, like the jihadist hotbed of Roubaix. However, the outraged reaction of Francois Hollande, the lame duck prime minister of France, to President Trump’s remarks at CPAC is laughable when you consider the fact that officials in Paris have had to erect an 8 ft. wall of reinforced glass in order to protect that city’s most recognizable symbol. Leaving aside the fact that Parisiens have to endure a police state that has no parallels in post-war France, a situation prompted by the threat posed by the 6 million Muslims who reside in that country-as well as the millions more who live in neighboring nations like Belgium and Germany-there is the inescapable difference between the Paris of today and the Paris of only a few decades ago.

Why would an ordinary American want to visit a city, however beautiful certain parts may be, where hundreds of Muslims are able to shut down entire blocks of pedestrian traffic-as well as local businesses-while they publicly pray? As gauche as this may be to say in the current year, people visit European capitals to discover the roots of Western civilization, not witness inter-tribal warfare or the Islamic conquest of a once great civilization. The fact that over three-quarters of the victims of terrorist attacks in France have fallen in the 21st century should give astute observers a clue as to the trajectory of that country’s future. Whatever you may think of President Trump, or the reliability of unsourced anecdotes, the notion that the Paris of today is the jewel of Europe, that the decades of unstinting Muslim migration from the third world haven’t permanently transformed France from the nation it once was, beggars belief. Perhaps undiluted multiculturalism, open borders in perpetuity, and the gradual erosion of natural rights in the name of accommodating the world’s “fastest-growing religion” is something that you favor, but don’t try to pretend that this is not what we’re witnessing.

The aftermath of the jihadist assault in Brussels has been filled with familiar scenes. From the puerile and utterly beside the point reactions of locals-rightly ridiculed by Gavin McInnes when seen on the streets of Paris in the wake of the Bataclan massacre-to the predictable, almost immediate trend pieces decrying a non-existent anti-Muslim backlash, it seems as if our civilization is stuck in a loop of self-deluding myopia. If you want to understand why the attacks on Brussels occurred-and why similar massacres have occurred in the past, and will likely recur in the future, both in Europe and the United States-then the video above is a good starting point.

The Spectator has also been a surprisingly strong bulwark against the insipid, noxious conventional wisdom being churned out in ever greater quantities, even as the premises upon which it is based are shattered. I especially recommend Douglas Murray’s column, which emphasizes the disconnect between reality and the fantasy created by Islamic-friendly opinion-makers in the West. The utter inability of European governments to defeat the Islamic State on a philosophical, much less practical, level is explored in a fantastic Brendan O’Neill piece. Finally, Ed West lays out some uncomfortable truths which I’m certain those ensconced in the parallel universe of the European Union bureaucracy are sure to ignore.

The idea that Brussels will remain Brussels, or Europe remain Europe, or that the past half century of reverse colonization has done nothing to render this cliche completely meaningless-as most cliches are-needs to be forcefully rejected. We are witnessing the latest iteration of an ideology which has transformed paradise on earth into an antechamber to hell, and which will surely do the same to the source of the Enlightenment if we do nothing to challenge its precepts and confront its apologists.