“These ahādīth (reports, see below) indicate that the Muslims will be at war with the… Christians of Europe and their colonies in Shām (“Lands of Islam”) prior to the conquering of Shām at the hands of the Sahābah (closest followers of Muhammad)… This battle ends the era of the Roman Christians…”(Islamic State (ISIS) Magazine: Dabiq - Issue 4, p.34)

Following are rough translations and are offered only to assist in reading the above:

A Hadith is a “report” describing the sayings or actions by Muhammad. They are secondary sources to the Quran.

Shām (Syria) but more generally, the Lands of Islam. As example: Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus (Central Asia) in al-Shām.

Sahābah refers to those closest to, who accompany Muhammad.

The most prominent symbol of Radical Islam’s intentions for Europe and the West (the “crusader/Christian world referred to in the Dabiq quote, above) remains al-Qaeda’s 2001 airline hijacking attacks targeting America’s most prominent symbols of power: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the failed attempt targeting either the White House or the Congress.

There is a traceable line from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to al-Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic State. All are ideologically anti-West and anti-secular. Brotherhood assassination attempts against two Egyptian presidents, failed against Nasser in 1954, successful against Sadat in 1981, partly describe their anti-secularism: Muhamed Morsi, the MB president ousted after one year in power attempting to impose Shariah Law on Egypt describes the religious agenda.

Within months of invading Iraq US forces found themselves fighting both Iran-backed Shi’a militias and the ex-Baath led Sunni al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI would later call itself Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) and, when Assad used force against street demonstrators igniting the insurrection ISI added the Levant to its name and ISIL soon captured and held more than half the territory of Syria. Turning back to Iraq it the now renamed Islamic State (IS) quickly controlled large swathes of Iraq and, between the two districts, ruled more than ten million people.

A German journalist, Jurgen Todenhofer, somehow received permission to embed for two weeks with IS forces in Mosul (where the Iraqi army was described as abandoning uniforms and weapons in flight from approaching IS forces). In his interview with Al Jazeera Todenhofer himself expressed surprise. “They knew that I had made very negative comments on them before. They knew I had met Assad. I told them clearly that 'I am not on your side,' and they said, 'Yes, that is not our problem, we don't care about your opinion, we want you to tell what you have seen here, not the opinion that you had beforehand.’” As to IS’s motives for allowing the reporter freedom to report, it is likely reflected in his description of Islamic State to Al Jazeera:

“I had three strong impressions of ISIL. The first one was that ISIL is much stronger than we think. They have conquered an area which is bigger than Great Britain. Every day, hundreds of new enthusiastic fighters are arriving. There is an incredible enthusiasm that I have never seen in any other war zones that I have been to.

“Secondly, the brutality of their intended religious cleansing is on another level [he previously described fighters enthusiasm at the prospect of “hundreds of millions” of dead]. And thirdly, I think the strategy of the western countries regarding the Muslim world is completely wrong. With our bombardment, we have never been successful. We have not been successful in Afghanistan; we have not been successful in Iraq. The bombardments are a terror-breeding program. We had much fewer terrorists before 2001 and these bombardments, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, have created terrorists and increased terrorism.

“I think only Sunni Iraqis can defeat the ISIL. They have done this once before. In 2007, they fought them down, but then ISIL was much weaker.”

I have provided a narrative of a possible, perhaps likely future describing how and why the West is and will be threatened by Radical Islamism. Over the years Europe has encouraged the immigration of millions of Muslim workers, mainly from Turkey and North Africa. They remained, second class citizens (if the term “citizen” even applies) in those adoptive countries. There they raised families and, for the most part, remained outsiders to the national culture. Their children, born into despair and with poor expectations for social progress remain frustrated and bitter; have expressed their sense of alienation through riots and lone-wolf terrorism. It is mostly from among these that Radical Islamism will find recruits at such time as, “Muslims will be at war with the… Christians of Europe and their colonies [leading to the battle that] ends the era of the Roman Christians.”