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Upon hearing the news that a Persian Islamist had taken hostages in Sydney, Australia, my first thought was as follows: “Boy, he’s messed with the wrong country there!” Those Aussies, I thought with pleasure, have far less patience with the diktats of political correctness than we do. They’ll probably come out fighting and loudly condemn the attack, arm locked in arm just like the heroes of Cronulla beach.

By the evening though, it had become clear that any majority response was being strangled at birth. The asphyxiating implement used was the faddish hashtag ‘#illridewithyou’, reportedly designed to offer protection to Australian Muslims in case they fell victim to a civil backlash.

Though Conservatives quickly tried to counter the trend by offering an alternative #illnotridewithyou hashtag, they were entirely unsuccessful. By the end of the day, #illridewithyou was the world’s No.1 trending topic.

What does this tell us? Well, for me, it shows that – for all our efforts and successes – we are still not winning the Islam argument, that the Left is coming back with renewed energy and resolve and that the Counter-Jihad, as a movement and as a sentiment, is declining in power.

How could this happen, you ask? Surely, the daily massacres, beheadings and explosions count in our favour… And if each grisly event converts more people to our cause, we must be well on the way to a commanding majority.

Before #illridewithyou I thought this too. Now I realise my complacency.

Islamophobic blogs like this one are echo chambers. Those who comment on this site more or less share the same views as I do. The right-wing press is the same in general with like almost always attracting like. But outside of this closed world, the Left works at a faster pace that we could ever match. For every article we publish, a hundred are published to throw cold water on the fires we light.

Islamophobia has become a subculture, the members of which reinforce the opinions of the pack. And like those UKIP members who mistakenly believe their party will win the 2015 election simply because everyone they know is voting the same way, we can easily fall into the trap of thinking this battle is won.

Time for a reality check. It has been estimated this week that Pakistan will have 200 nuclear missiles by 2020, four times the number it had in 2000. Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia all have functioning nuclear programs too. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a military reserve of over 5 million men, far more than can be marshalled by any Western military including the United States. Weapons of the most sophisticated kind are still being passed by America to regimes like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Demographically, the situation remains as dire as ever. For all the hatred being kindled against their faith, Muslims continue to outbreed Europeans at a ratio of more than 2:1. Hundreds of Mosques are constructed every year in European cities. The median age of White Europeans continues to push deeper into middle age. Western indebtedness to China, the Arabian Gulf and Brazil has yet to be reduced.

Let’s make 2015 the year we start to tackle the Islamic menace with the radicalism required to defeat it.

D, LDN.