With the usual linguistic caution that censors the truth of things, we speak of “incivility,” “violent fringes,” “urban violence,” or “youthful excesses” to describe those who set Italian cities ablaze in the name of Gaza, but in reality, this is one of the most alarming symptoms of a phenomenon that far exceeds the limits of a news story or occasional social disorder.
It is, on a Western scale, a real insurrection, intermittent but persistent, led by a significant portion of woke-ized youth and those of Muslim and immigrant origin, against institutions representing democratic order. An internal intifada—not for the sake of provocation, but because the word means what it must: a revolt against a power perceived as illegitimate, hostile, and oppressive.
An internal intifada—not for the sake of provocation, but because the word means what it must: a revolt against a power perceived as illegitimate, hostile, and oppressive.
The obsessive reference to the Palestinian Arab cause shows that it is not about geopolitical mimicry or abstract solidarity. What is at stake in those images is the transposition, onto the domestic stage of European nations, of an imaginary struggle fueled by hatred for the West, its principles, and its symbolic universe.
Just look at how they have turned universities into war zones.
“Charlie refused to wear the bulletproof vest,” Kirk’s widow revealed to the New York Times.
A conservative speaker knew he was risking his life not in a military trench somewhere in Donbass or Gaza, but in Western universities. Friends had even suggested Kirk speak behind bulletproof glass after he had received numerous death threats.
The same bulletproof glass behind which children play at the Jewish school in Malmö, Sweden.
Let us reflect again with the great Victor Klemperer, who wrote: “Words can act like tiny doses of arsenic: we swallow them without noticing, and their effect manifests over time.”
The same goes for the bulletproof vest.
When Danish journalist Flemming Rose, who commissioned the Muhammad cartoons and has a Taliban bounty on his head, was invited to speak at Oxford, the university citadel looked like a war zone. Rose recounts in his book “The Tyranny of Silence”:
“The Oxford Union invited me to a debate on democracy, free speech, and respect for religious feelings. Since its founding in 1823, the Union has brought the most controversial issues of the age—war, racism, religion—to the table for open and free discussion. Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan called the forum ‘the last citadel of free speech in Western civilization.’ My visit turned into the largest security operation since Michael Jackson had visited the city years earlier. The head of security met me at the airport and lodged me in a hotel under a false name. The campus was cordoned off by police and visitors were searched and put through metal detectors before entering the hall.”
We Westerners have ended up like Noam Chomsky’s boiled frog: if water scalded us suddenly, we would jump out of the pot, but if the temperature rises gradually, imperceptibly, even pleasantly, and by the time we realize it’s too hot, it’s too late.
Jack Ross, head of Kirk’s organization in England, just wore a bulletproof vest at a vigil for his murdered friend.
Another famous American conservative, Ben Shapiro, revealed on The Free Press:
“My security ordered me to wear bulletproof vests, insisted on the use of metal detectors, and told me to leave places they considered unsafe.”
Now a conservative activist, to speak at Berkeley—the birthplace of free speech in 1964—must wear a bulletproof vest.
Now a conservative activist, to speak at Berkeley—the birthplace of free speech in 1964—must wear a bulletproof vest.
$600,000: that’s the cost of security to let Shapiro speak at an American college.
Is it clear what is happening inside Western walls?
We were wrong to think the bulletproof vest was only for Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Gaza and Lebanon borders, an Israeli singer performing at Eurovision, Donald Trump at his rallies and Geert Wilders, who even in TV debates wears a bulletproof vest.
A Conservative UK government minister, Mike Freer, retired from politics after being flooded with death threats and having his office set on fire. “There comes a point where threats to your personal safety become excessive,” Freer said. The MP and his staff wear protective vests when attending public events. Death threats came from Islamic groups such as “Muslims Against Crusades” (imaginative, these Islamists) and they even found Molotov cocktails on the office steps.
When Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was released, employees of his publishing house were asked to wear bulletproof vests. So did the heads of Penguin.
Fast forward to today: even Rushdie’s German-Iranian publisher, Dawoud Nemati, who lives in exile in Essen, western Germany, must wear a bulletproof vest.
One-third of all personalities under police protection in France are so because of Islam.
Some must wear bulletproof vests, like Imam Hassen Chalghoumi.
Across Europe, countless academics are protected by police because of Islamic threats.
Egyptian sociologist Hamed Abdel Samad wears a vest when lecturing in Germany. On Die Welt, Hamed Abdel Samad recounts his visit to the book fair wearing a security vest:
“I travel only in armored vehicles and avoid any contact with people I am not intimately friends with. I was traveling to the airport to present my book at the Frankfurt Book Fair. It was supposed to be the highlight of my writing career. The book had just reached number one on the Spiegel bestseller list and my publisher wanted to celebrate at the fair.
“But all of that was overshadowed when my security team leader handed me a bulletproof vest at the airport. ‘You should always wear it when appearing in public!’”
“But all of that was overshadowed when my security team leader handed me a bulletproof vest at the airport. ‘You should always wear it when appearing in public!’ The vest was extremely heavy; I could barely breathe. I entered the book fair and noticed that the heavily armed bodyguards were particularly tense. I was sweating profusely and felt the need to hide. I considered it a parody of an open society and a defeat for Western culture that an intellectual in the heart of 21st-century Europe had to fear for his life during a lecture.”
From parody to tragedy, a conservative activist should have to wear the same bulletproof vest during a university event, where he was invited not to speak ill of Islam but to present his ideas about the world and life.
This is the Intifada and the Fatwa against the West.
There will never be enough bulletproof vests for all dissenters. Either we go on the offensive and win this cultural war today, or no one will be safe tomorrow.
Published originally on September 25, 2025.
