Europe sees itself as a liberal-minded society. It has no desire to be, nor can it be, a "Christian club.

The scientific and societal achievements of the modern age are undisputable. But after the French Revolution, modernity increasingly emancipated itself from Christian roots, thereby becoming rootless itself.

There is no such thing as one Islam. The Koran is ambiguous and Islam is not a monolithic entity.

The conflict with Islam has, after all, existed throughout European history.

Those who are unprepared to demonstrate tolerance cannot expect or even demand tolerance for themselves.

The distinction between radical Islam and moderate Muslims is important, as are the differences between Sunnis and Shiites, and between militant and mystical Islam.

The end of World War I also marked the end of bourgeois culture. An inner emptiness developed that, in the 19th and 20th centuries, paved the way for two ideologies that dragged Europe and the world into an abyss and plunged it into a catastrophe.