There are significant consequences that come with importing masses of foreign nationals from cultures incompatible with Western Civilization. Yet, Europeans seem content with learning this lesson the hard way.

On Thursday, the United Kingdom experienced a tragic terror attack when 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie allegedly rammed his truck into a crowd at a Manchester synagogue before getting out and stabbing Jewish congregants. Al-Shamie is of Syrian descent and became a British citizen in 2006 after entering the country as a young child, according to Fox News.

The attack — which occurred on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur — left two people dead and three injured. As later acknowledged by Manchester Police, however, at least one death and one injury were caused by gunfire from law enforcement.

U.K. authorities have “arrested three other people in connection with the attack: two men in their 30s and one woman in her 60s,” according to the Washington Examiner.

While official investigations continue, the tragedy is symbolic of the self-inflicted wound wrought by inept European leaders on their peoples. That is, the mass importation of (particularly Muslim) individuals whose worldview and culture are sharply at odds with the Christian foundations of Western society.

As The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson recently observed, Britain, as well as its other European counterparts, are experiencing de-Christianization, in which the political elites have pandered to the cultural desires of the “unassimilated Muslim population[s].” At the same time, Davidson noted, these nations have abandoned the Western practices that helped define them as once-exceptional powers.

“Britain’s leaders today are arguably following in Henry VIII’s footsteps. They introduce and favor foreign cultural practices, extend the power of the state over the traditional rights and liberties of the people, and persecute the native British population for dissenting from the forced transformation of their country,” Davidson wrote.

This couldn’t be more true than on the subject of free speech.

The U.K. government has gone out of its way to arrest people who engage in “wrong think” — even comics like Graham Linehan for acknowledging basic biology about sex. (And they’re hardly the only European state to do so.)

Meanwhile, actual threatening actions and atrocities committed by the foreign-born migrant population are effectively swept under the rug as if they never happened.

[READ: The King Of England Can’t Even Celebrate Easter Without Mentioning Islam]

It’s for reasons like this why condemnations of Thursday’s synagogue attack from leaders like U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer — who recently rewarded Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel with a new “Palestinian state” — are completely meaningless. It’s Starmer and those like him who have spearheaded Britain’s civilizational collapse.

If they had any interest in pulling their nation back from falling off the proverbial cliff, they’d forfeit the suicidal policies they’ve adopted and reverse course. But they’re not doing that.

Much like their American leftist counterparts, British leadership will allow their civilization to burn before surrendering their destructive worldview. Their addiction to left-wing paganism is simply far more important than any interest in surviving as a people and culture.

And for that, the people of Britain will suffer.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood