Gov. Bobby Jindal shares thoughts on Christianity in America

Republican Presidential hopeful and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spent a full hour with Glenn on radio Tuesday, discussing many topics to help listeners get to know him a little more.

As a Catholic who has made strong statements in the past about the preservation of religious freedom, Jindal dedicated a good portion of his interview with Glenn to the topic of religious oppression, particularly toward Christians in recent years.

Listen.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

GLENN: Bobby Jindal joins us now. And I want to start with some faith things. Let me play a clip from the debates last week where Bobby Jindal listed the jobs that Christians can't have. Listen to this.

BOBBY: I'd like the left to give us a list of jobs that Christians aren't allowed to have. If we're not allowed to be clerks, bakers, musicians, caterers, are we allowed to be pastors anymore? We're not allowed to be elected officials. I just want to make this important point. The First Amendment right -- the right to religious freedom is the First Amendment of the Constitution. It isn't breaking the law to exercise our constitutional rights. America did not create religious liberty. Religious liberty created the United States of America. It is the reason we're here today.

GLENN: So a lot of people believe that. A lot of people -- I mean, religion is under attack. And that's saying something now that the pope has arrived here in the United States, and Bobby Jindal, who is a Catholic joins us now. Hi, Bobby, how are you?

BOBBY: Glenn, it's great to be on the air with you. I'm glad that we're still allowed to be radio hosts, and we're still allowed to run for president in our country. I'm glad that they haven't disqualified us from doing that.

GLENN: You just add one word to that: Yet. And I'm comfortable with it.

BOBBY: Don't give them any ideas.

GLENN: Bobby, you're a dear friend. And we don't want to say too much nice about you because we've discovered that anytime we like a candidate, it's the kiss of death. So, just for the record, we hate your guts and we hope you never become president of the United States. Hopefully, that will work in reverse psychology, and you will become the president.

Bobby, you are really, truly one of the real, true conservatives that are getting the job done. In Louisiana, you have stood fast on Common Core. You are -- you're a guy who has a tremendous story of American exceptionalism, but you see the trouble just as much as I do and the next guy. Let's start with religious liberty. And the pope is coming to the United States. And as a non-Catholic, I love this guy. At the same time, I'm really concerned because he doesn't like capitalism all that much. He is a guy --

BOBBY: Sure.

GLENN: He is the guy that is the polar opposite on Pope John Paul and his stance on capitalism and communism. What do you think about this, as a Catholic?

BOBBY: Well, a couple of things. First of all, thank you for those wonderful comments. Look, I'd much rather be praised from Glenn Beck than praised from the New York Times or the Washington Post. I worry -- I love when you say good things about me. I worry if they -- they don't, but if they ever were to write something good about me, then I would be worried.

GLENN: No, don't lose any sleep. They'll never write anything nice about you.

BOBBY: That's right. There's no danger of that happening.

GLENN: Yeah.

BOBBY: Two things about the pope. And, one, you know, the liberal media loves when he does say things that they view as being less than conservative, whether it's about capitalism or global warming or immigration. And they ignore when he says more traditional things on marriage, on being pro-life, and on the sanctity of life, and on religious liberty. And I'd be curious to see how the mainstream media, whether they'll mention those things that he talks about.

But, secondly, I will say this as a Catholic, I respect him. I admire him. I encourage every religious leader to weigh in on important political and social issues. I don't think their voices should be excluded. I don't always agree with them. And the reality is I'm not always required to agree with them. And certainly when the church teaches on faith and morals, like things about being pro-life or the sanctity of marriage, between a man and a woman -- those things, we are required, you know, as Christians, as Catholics, to hold to those truths. When he gives his opinion on capitalism, when he gives his opinion on the relationship between --

GLENN: Air-conditioning.

BOBBY: -- America and Cuba, I'm not obligated -- I don't agree with that. And I don't think that -- for example, he played a critical role in the negotiations between the Castros and this president. I think that was a mistake for America, and I think that was a mistake for people who are fighting for human rights in Cuba. So, look, I'm glad he's coming. I'm glad he's going to challenge folks. I really hope his folks hear him challenging us on matters of faith, especially on Jesus Christ, on the gospel. I just hope people really hear his gospel message. But you're exactly right, the mainstream media loves to take his visit and turn it into an excuse to try to get Republicans and conservatives.

GLENN: And, quite honestly, Bobby, this is why I'm a little torn on him. I'm not a little torn. I'm very torn on him. Because I really, truly believe he's one of the more -- I mean, I love Pope John Paul himself. But one of the more truly Christ-like figures we have seen in my lifetime. He really does move like Christ when it comes to compassion and to care for one another. Just truly love one another. He's remarkable. But when he comes out and says things like global warming -- I know he just came out recently and said that air-conditioning is an evil. I don't even begin to understand that. And then we know that next week -- and let's kind of move from the pope to kind of the UN. Next week, he's talking about a Palestinian state. They're going to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. We're abandoning our Jewish and Israeli allies, the strongest friend we have in the Middle East. And the only ones in the Middle East we should really be standing with, besides maybe the Kurds. And we're abandoning them. Where do we go from here?

BOBBY: Look, you're right when you describe the Jewish people, you describe the state of Israel. You think about how this president has treated them. As to the question of a Palestinian state, I think it's clear that we will only begin to start to talk about a two-state solution and encourage Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate once the Palestinians reject violence and terrorism and explicitly recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.

Until they do that, how can any American president encourage them -- how can we encourage our allies, the Israelis, to negotiate with a group that says explicitly -- look, Hamas, they're not timid about this, Glenn. They have explicitly said, I want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. How do you negotiate with people that will blow up -- that will send out suicide bombers to blow up your civilians? You can't negotiate with terrorists. So I think it has to be a requirement before we push for any negotiations. But, you know, our foreign policy is so backwards. You take important allies like Israel, President Obama treats our friends like dirt. And he let's our enemy, like Iran, walk all over him. He's completely backwards. We need to get back to the days where our friends trust us, our enemies fear and respect us. You talk about Pope John Paul II. You just think about how amazing it was to have him, to have Maggie, to have President Ronald Reagan. You and I were blessed. Growing up with those kinds of world leaders, what an amazing -- maybe we took them for granted, not realizing how exceptional they were.

GLENN: Do we -- I -- I wonder as you look at Europe and you see what's happening in Europe and you see how far gone they are. And now with the refugee problem. I mean, the Saudis need to take the refugees. The Muslim countries of the world need to take the refugees until this war is over. But we have a -- we have a responsibility -- the world said, "Never again is right now." It's happening again. There's a genocide with Christians. And I have -- I've seen many Christians open their hearts. Many Americans open their hearts. But a lot of people, rightfully so, Bobby, are seeing what's happening in Europe and are thinking, it's over in Europe. And it could very easily be over here in America. We'll have a piece of audio that we'll play later from a school board meeting in New Jersey where the Muslims are demanding that in ten days, the school dismiss for the -- for the ten days of, what is it, Eid?

PAT: Eid.

GLENN: Eid for ten days. And they do it right now. And the school is like, "We can't do that." And they're getting upset and saying, "You know, soon we'll outnumber you, and we're just going to do it." What's happening to us, Bobby? Can we go back to a place where America was what we thought it was?

BOBBY: Well, Glenn, I'm going to say something politically incorrect. I know you'd be shocked, and I know you've never said anything politically incorrect on your show. But I want to say something politically incorrect, and I know it's incorrect because Hillary Clinton doesn't like it. So I'm going to say it again anyway.

Look, immigration without assimilation is not immigration. It's an invasion. What you're seeing in Europe, second, third generation folks there that don't consider themselves parts of those societies, we must not let that happen here. I don't think America can be beat by any external enemy, but I think we can lose our freedoms internally if we give them away. It is foolish. I know this is politically incorrect, but it is foolish for us to let people come into our country unless they come legally, they learn English, they adopt our values, they're ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. And unfortunately, the left is trying to preach to us. We're not a melting pot. We're somehow supposed to be a salad bowl. That's nonsense. And they will tell you that you and I are culturally arrogant. We're xenophobic. We're anti-Muslim. That's all nonsense.

What we are is saying that America is a unique -- we have a unique Judeo-Christian foundation and heritage. And there's nothing wrong with saying we want to continue American exceptionalism and folks should only come here if they want to be Americans. And if you don't want to be an American, no one is making you come here. But you're right, we watch what's happening in Europe. We must not let that happen here. The other thing, while we're talking about the refugee issue, let's not forget the reason this is happening is because the president's failed policies. He said there would be a red line, and he did not enforce it. He said if Assad crossed that red line, there would be consequences. That void allowed ISIS to grow. It's allowing Russia now to come into Syria. And he still refuses to arm and train the Kurds, which is amazing to me. He continues to believe that leading from behind is leadership. Weakness creates a void. It's provocative to evil. And that's what we're seeing in the world today. American weakness is provocative to evil and our enemies all over the globe.

GLENN: So, Bobby, I'm not going to play the game that the media wants to play on whether the president is a Muslim or not. I just want you to tell me what -- how can a guy have this bad of a record. He runs to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He fails to support at all the uprising in Iran. He runs to arm the -- the al-Qaeda people -- the people who are fighting al-Qaeda who end up being Syrians. I'm sorry. Who end up being ISIS. Now we're running to arm ISIS. It takes him a year to decide whether or not we're going to kill Osama bin Laden.

Here's the latest on the story in the school in Irving, Texas, that kid who did the, quote, science project, which wasn't a science project, wasn't an assignment at all. Was told by the science teacher, "Put this away in your locker. Don't take it out, and don't ever bring this to school again." The latest is, his father, who we now know is an Islamic activist, has pulled him and his two siblings out of the school. Then he's taking his son to the UN to meet with the dignitaries on the Palestinian state. From there, they're going on a pilgrimage to Mecca to Saudi Arabia. And then they're getting on a plane from Mecca and flying right directly to Washington to meet with the president of the United States.

BOBBY: You know, Glenn, you asked about this president. And look, I've long wondered, is he just extremely incompetent with radical liberal ideology. He's told us, he's the first president that doesn't believe in American exceptionalism. Now, take a step back and understand what that really means. He does not believe in American exceptionalism. You and I believe America is the greatest country in the history of the world. We have a president who when asked directly about that, didn't just quickly and affirmatively say, "Yes, obviously."

Instead, we have a president who truly believes that -- America -- I think if you look at his policies, he truly seems to believe that America causes all these problems. If we retreat from the world, if we have less influence, less power, things will turn out better. Well, in that void, we've seen Russia go into the Ukraine. We've seen ISIS grow in Iraq and Syria. We've seen China ascend in Asia. And we've seen our allies. They're so confused thinking -- you know, they want America to lead. And they want a stronger America. And they can't have that, they will hedge their bets and go elsewhere.

We see the idea of America slipping away in front of us. Glenn, the last seven years, we've seen things I never thought we'd see. We've talked about foreign policy. You're seeing Planned Parenthood selling baby's organs across the country. We've seen $18 trillion of debt. We've seen them create a new government mandate and entitlement when we can't afford the government we got. We've seen this president, he won't even say the words "radical Islamic terrorism." Fort Hood is still a workplace issue. We've seen this president more than happy to criticize crusaders and medieval Christians and criticize and apologize for America, and yet, he won't -- we won't go out there and stand with Israel. He's declared war on transfats, truce with Iran. We've seen things we never thought we'd see in seven years. It's not too late. The hour is getting late. We had better save the idea of America --

GLENN: Okay. So --

BOBBY: -- because it has created more wealth than any other civilization in the history of the world. It's done more to fight for freedom than any other civilization in the history of the world.

GLENN: Okay. So I want to talk to you -- we want to take a quick break. I want to come back and talk to you about something that I think is more disturbing than everything you just talked about. And that is, either the apathetic nature of the average American, where baby parts don't seem to offend them anymore. Or on top of that, if it's not the apathetic nature, it is the nature of maybe 10 percent of the people who say they would agree with me and Tea Party values that are running to people like Donald Trump because they say, "Well, he'll fix it. I'm tired of it. I want somebody who is a little bully on our side who will fix it." Kind of frightening stuff. We'll talk about that here in just a second and find out what your view is on what's happening to the American people themselves.

Featured Image: Republican Presidential hopeful and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition 15th Annual Family Banquet and Presidential Forum held at the Iowa State fairgrounds on September 19, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Eight of the Republican candidates including Donald Trump are expected to attend the event. (Photo by Steve Pope/Getty Images)

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

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Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

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When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

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Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

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Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.