Mimesis Rivalry Colonisation

 

Mimesis, Rivalry, and Colonisation: The 21st Century Islamic Expansion into Europe and the United Kingdom through the Lens of René Girard’s Mimetic Theory

Abstract

This thesis examines the 21st century Islamic expansion into Europe and the United Kingdom through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic theory. From the perspective of European populations who perceive themselves as being colonised, replaced, or subsumed by Islamic cultural and demographic growth, the thesis situates contemporary anxieties about immigration, identity, and survival within the framework of mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and sacrificial violence. It argues that the dynamics at play cannot be reduced to economic migration or humanitarian exchange, but are instead entangled in the deeper mimetic struggle for cultural dominance, recognition, and continuity. By drawing on sources from anthropology, sociology, political science, religious studies, and philosophy, the study seeks to provide a structured understanding of why the perception of colonisation persists, why it generates existential fears among European communities, and how Girard’s theory illuminates the mechanisms of rivalry and substitution that define the crisis.

Introduction

The 21st century has witnessed unprecedented demographic shifts within Europe and the United Kingdom, driven largely by sustained migration flows from Islamic-majority nations. To many Europeans, these shifts are perceived not as a neutral exchange of populations but as a form of colonisation—a demographic and cultural expansion threatening to supplant indigenous traditions. Popularised in political discourse as “The Great Replacement” (Camus, 2011), this narrative interprets immigration as a structured project of cultural displacement.

René Girard’s mimetic theory provides a powerful lens for understanding these perceptions. At its core, mimetic theory posits that human desire is imitative, leading to rivalry, escalation, and the need for resolution through scapegoating and sacrificial substitution. Applied to the European context, the perceived Islamic expansion can be interpreted as a mimetic rivalry of civilisations: the West, grounded in secular liberalism and Christian heritage, versus Islam, grounded in submission to divine authority and communal identity. Each desires what the other possesses: vitality, dominance, legitimacy, and survival.

This thesis argues that the fear of colonisation is not merely paranoia but the expression of an underlying mimetic rivalry, where Europe sees in Islam both its antagonist and its mirror.

Chapter 1: Mimetic Theory and the Dynamics of Desire

• René Girard identifies imitation (mimesis) as the basis of human desire, where individuals do not desire objects autonomously but through the mediation of another.

• Applied to cultures, Europe and Islam function as “model-rivals,” competing for the object of legitimacy, moral authority, and continuity.

• The secular West envies Islam’s demographic vitality, conviction, and unyielding belief; Islam envies the West’s wealth, institutions, and global reach.

• This rivalry escalates within shared social spaces—immigrant neighborhoods, schools, political institutions—where mimetic competition intensifies.

Chapter 2: Colonisation as Mimetic Rivalry

• Traditional colonialism involved territorial conquest, resource extraction, and cultural imposition. In contrast, the “colonisation” perceived by Europeans today is demographic, ideological, and cultural.

• Islam, as understood through its expansionist history, is seen by critics as inherently missionary and totalising (Lewis, 2002).

• Mimetic rivalry frames colonisation not simply as a one-way imposition but as reciprocal: Europe seeks to universalise secular democracy, while Islam seeks to universalise divine law.

• The UK, with its imperial past, experiences the anxiety of reversal: once a coloniser, it now fears becoming the colonised.

Chapter 3: Scapegoating and the European Crisis

• Girard’s mechanism of the scapegoat explains how societies resolve rivalry by displacing violence onto a substitute victim.

• Within Europe, Muslim immigrants are often scapegoated as the cause of social fragmentation, terrorism, and cultural decline.

• Conversely, within Islamic discourse, Europe is scapegoated as the enemy of God, colonial exploiter, and cultural corrupter.

• The cycle of mutual scapegoating perpetuates rivalry and deepens polarisation.

Chapter 4: The Great Replacement and the Fear of Extinction

• “The Great Replacement” (Camus, 2011) describes the fear that indigenous European populations are being demographically replaced through high Islamic birthrates and sustained immigration.

• From a Girardian lens, this fear represents the terror of substitution: the replacement of one identity by another in the sacrificial economy of history.

• Europe perceives its secular and Christian traditions as fragile, vulnerable to erasure by Islam’s more assertive communal identity.

• Mimetic rivalry escalates as both populations fight for symbolic and literal survival in the same territory.

Chapter 5: Toward Resolution or Escalation?

• Girard argued that modernity undermines sacrificial solutions, leaving rivalry unresolved and perpetual.

• Europe cannot “sacrifice” Islam without violating its liberal ethos, nor can Islam easily dissolve into secular modernity without losing its essence.

• The result is a permanent crisis: unresolved mimetic tension manifesting in populist politics, cultural backlash, and radicalisation.

• Potential pathways:

1. Assimilation – unlikely given Islam’s resilience.

2. Secession/Parallel Societies – growing in European cities.

3. Conflict/Escalation – mimetic rivalry unchecked.

4. Transformation – the creation of a new synthesis identity, though Girard would warn this too risks scapegoating.

Conclusion

From the perspective of Europeans who fear colonisation, Islam represents not merely an external force but an internal rival within the mimetic structure of desire. The fear of replacement, though often dismissed as paranoia, reflects an existential recognition of the mimetic crisis at the heart of Europe: a civilisation uncertain of its identity, facing a rival whose conviction appears unshakable.

Girard’s theory reveals that the struggle is not only political or demographic but anthropological and theological: a contest of desires, each imitating and opposing the other. Whether this rivalry leads to reconciliation, synthesis, or catastrophic escalation remains unresolved.

Index of Works Cited (by Title and Author)

• Violence and the Sacred — René Girard

• Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World — René Girard

• The Scapegoat — René Girard

• Battling to the End — René Girard

• The Great Replacement — Renaud Camus

• The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order — Samuel Huntington

• The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror — Bernard Lewis

• Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West — Christopher Caldwell

• Europe and the Islamic World: A History — John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, Henry Laurens

• Submission — Michel Houellebecq

• Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny — Amartya Sen

• The Multiculturalism of Fear — Jacob T. Levy

• The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam — Douglas Murray

• Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State — Olivier Roy

• Islam and the Future of Tolerance — Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz