These “prophets of death” come with a clear message intended for all of us: This will be the fate of those who refuse to submit to medieval Sharia dictates. If the general coverage in the mainstream media is any indication, they have already succeeded in landing our compliance. And it wasn’t very difficult.

For a cowardly press that often abridges what was really said and fails to stand up for the fundamental freedoms—along with politicians and a society that refuse to demand anything in return—we in Europe have no one to blame but ourselves.

For too long we have celebrated the erosion of our Western values, by calling it “multiculturalism.” Our politicians, intellectuals and academics seem to prefer indulging in “social romanticism” than questioning the exploding parallel legal and social norms that are emerging in immigrant Muslim communities.

Our politicians courted the radical clergy and lent their ears to their perceived grievances. Our politicians legitimized these persons—who often turn out to be extremists posing as moderates—as the sole representatives of all Muslim immigrants. Most of all, we failed to extend our hand of solidarity to those brave Muslim men and women who dared to defy the radical elements within their own communities.

For years, established political parties and the mainstream media have done everything to undermine a genuine debate on the rising threat of militant Islamism in midst of European societies—and even today continue to do so. Where our political mainstream has failed us, far-left, far-right and neo-Nazi groups have been quick to materialize.

We have been squandering away the freedom the allied forces secured on the continent at the end of the Second World War at a huge human cost.

If we fail to stand up for our values, nobody else will.