Amid heightened tensions over ISIS-fueled terror attacks and anti-Muslim rhetoric, the prominent U.S. cardinal says Islam "wants to govern the world" and Americans must decide if they are going to reassert "the Christian origin of our own nation" in order to avoid that fate.

Burke, a Rome-based cardinal, says Islam is "fundamentally a form of government."

While Catholic teaching recognizes that all Abrahamic faiths worship the same God, Burke criticized Catholic leaders, who, in an effort to be tolerant, have a tendency "to simply think that Islam is a religion like the Catholic faith or the Jewish faith."

"That simply is not objectively the case," he said.

Burke, who was once archbishop of St. Louis, stressed that he did not want to be "disrespectful" of Islam or "generate hostility."

But he said he worries that many people do not understand that, in his view, "when they (Muslims) become the majority in any country they have the duty to submit the whole population to Shariah," as the Islamic code of law is known.

"When they become a majority in any country then they have the religious obligation to govern that country. If that's what the citizens of a nation want, well, then, they should just allow this to go on. But if that's not what they want, then they have to find a way to deal with it."

He said that in some cities in France and Belgium with large Muslim populations "there are little Muslim states" that are effectively "no-go zones" for government authorities - an assertion that is widely disputed.

But Burke claimed "these things aren't anomalies for Islam. This is the way things are to go. ... And if you do understand that and you are not at peace with the idea of being forcibly under an Islamic government, then you have reason to be afraid."

He cited historical examples of famous military clashes between Muslim forces and the forces of Christian nations of Europe, such the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the Battle of Vienna in 1683, both of which marked defeats for the Ottoman Empire.

"These historical events relate directly with the situation of today. There's no question that Islam wants to govern the world," Burke said.

The Anglican Communion in its dealings with Islam has repeatedly called for better relations and Interfaith dialogue with Islam. The Anglican Communion's Inter-Anglican Network on Inter Faith Concerns set up in 1993 (later renamed the Network for Inter Faith Concerns - NIFCON), endeavored to link those in different provinces with a particular concern for inter faith relations, and co-ordinate news and resources in this area.

On Christian-Muslim relations, Dr. Rowan Williams, when he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke of the important scope for better understanding: "...despite some of our differences, we can, in the light of our belief about Almighty God, together make certain affirmations to the world about the way to peace and justice for human beings."

In a British context, Dr. Williams highlighted plans for practical solidarity between faith communities when under threat: "...we hope a Christian community will give support to local Muslims if a mosque is attacked, and Muslims may do the same for local Jews if a synagogue is attacked or a cemetery desecrated, and Muslims and Jews will stand alongside Christians when they are abused and attacked. We pray that this willingness to stand alongside each other will be shared in other nations."

However, since these remarks were made in 2004, much water has flowed under the bridge of Anglican Muslim dialogue.

In 2008, then Rochester Bishop, Michael Nazir-Ali, said Islamic extremists had created "no-go" areas across Britain where it was too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter. Extremism has flourished as Britain lost Christianity, he said. He said that people of a different race or faith face physical attack if they live or work in communities dominated by a strict Muslim ideology.

It needs to be faced honestly that in parts of the Anglican Communion, such as Nigeria, Sudan and Pakistan, some sections of other faith communities are persecutors of Christians, noted the Anglican Communion Office in London.

"Where this is the case, dialogue with the dominant faith group may still be possible. But Christians must also be prepared to engage in advocacy on behalf of fellow Christians in difficult situations.

"This is why at the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolved to 'respectfully...request the governments of nations where such discrimination and harassment are common occurrences to affirm their commitment to religious liberty.' The bishops also asked all Anglicans to support persecuted Christians by prayer, encouragement, and practical and economic assistance.

"With an increasing number of attacks by extremist religious groups on faith traditions around the world, there has perhaps been no better time for members of the Anglican Communion to actively dialogue with members of other faith traditions who hold common values of promoting peace, social justice and religious liberty."

Recently, the Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed a group of Shia theologians to Lambeth Palace at the culmination of three days of dialogue with Christian theologians, hosted by Harris Manchester College, Oxford and the British Council.

Expressing his appreciation for this dialogue, Archbishop Justin Welby said: "At a time of increasing fear and division in the world, it is ever more important that people of faith, Christians and Muslims, come together to work towards the common good for the betterment of all.

"As Anglicanism has its roots in the United Kingdom, and Shi'ism in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the former Persian Empire, I recognize that there is great potential for our faith to act as a bridge between our faith communities and the countries in which they are based."

More recently, however, Archbishop Welby has voiced his fears about Islam and said this: "Islam is engaged in more and more violent activity in its civil war. Its violent arms subvert, attack, kill and destroy without mercy or conscience, as Christians did during the reformation. Islam's mainstream leaders, at peace but much menaced, look for friends, how do we respond?"

On immigration, Welby warned: "There is a genuine fear. And it is really important that that fear is listened to and addressed. There have to be resources put in place that address those fears.' He added: 'What happens about housing? What happens about jobs? What happens about access to health services?'"

Campaign groups welcomed his powerful intervention as a "marvelous breath of fresh air". It comes after years in which the liberal Left has attacked those expressing concern about the unprecedented levels of immigration into Britain as bigots.

Britain has a "genuine and justified" fear of mass immigration, the Archbishop of Canterbury declared last night. The country's most senior churchman said it was 'absolutely outrageous' to dismiss the public's legitimate concerns as racist, he said.

One of the world's leading authorities on Christian persecution, the Rev. Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, says Christians are sleep walking through the rise of Islam in the West. Sookhdeo points first to churches that have imbibed Liberal theology emptied of biblical truth and therefore have nothing to offer. "Islam, with its absolutist claims is filling the vacuum that was left by the decline of "Christian Britain". Muslims know what they believe, but many church leaders offer an uncertain vision. If the church is to have a future in the UK, we must return to biblical truth and hold to the historic Christian teachings on the Person of Christ and the Trinity. Also we need to recover a properly biblical eschatology that is focused on the return of the Jesus Christ as Saviour and judge. In Islamic eschatology, Jesus will return and convert the world to Islam. We must boldly preach that when Jesus comes, he will vindicate the suffering Christian church and hold opponents of the gospel to account."

The question therefore is: what is true Islam? The reality is that there are now many "Islams" depending on one's interpretation of the texts and of the history. All can validly claim to be theologically based on the same Islamic source texts, says Sookhdeo.

Born a Muslim, and a Christian convert, he is a world expert on Islam, jihad and terrorism, and has been warning the West and the church for decades about the threat they face from militant Islam. Increasingly, more people are listening to his warnings.

Sookhdeo believes that both Western governments and Christian churches are going out of their way to appease and placate Islam. It may be done with good intentions, but the outcome is far from good. Indeed, the main reason why such attempts fail is because the real nature and aims of Islam are not recognized.

Real peace in Islamic thinking can only occur when all submit to Allah and sharia law. And Muslim da'wa (mission) is actively engaged in extending the territory of Allah's rule on earth. In their view, interfaith dialogue is all one-way traffic. It is about just one thing: reducing the number of kafirun and increasing the number of Muslims (those who submit).

Sookhdeo reminds us that Muslims supremely respect strength, power and honor, and despise weakness, shame and admissions of guilt. Thus when Christians seek to make major concessions to Islam, as in apologizing for the Crusades, they commit a number of major mistakes. Such apologies simply confirm to Muslims that they are superior and Christians are inferior.

Muslims may plead to be better received in the West, but this is false pleading. Muslims can basically say and do what they want in the West, They can build all the mosques they like, distribute all the Korans they like, and preach all the anti-Western sermons they like, he writes.

"Christians in Muslim majority countries have no such freedoms. In places like Saudi Arabia there is not permitted even one Christian church. Christian minorities are dhimmi, or second class citizens. They face tremendous persecution, opposition and deprivation of basic human rights."

Sookhdeo says the Bible nowhere commands us to enter into interfaith dialogue, or seek to be reconciled with other religions.

"The emerging scenario around the world is of Christian missions being increasingly limited both by secular states and in Muslim lands," says Sookhdeo, "while Muslim da'wa activities are rapidly advancing and expanding worldwide."

Sookhdeo's hardline has not won him any friends among the present day Church of England leadership, and he is even being ostracized by evangelical groups bent on appeasing Islam.

Cardinal Burke believes that that the appropriate response is to be firm about the Christian origin of our own nation, and certainly in Europe, and the Christian foundations of the government, and to fortify those. Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has echoed similar sentiments about the historic Christian roots of England.

"I think we have to insist on that. We have to say no, our country is not free to become a Muslim state," concluded Burke.

Winston Churchill once wrote that the influence of Islam paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of Ancient Rome.

You can read Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo's latest book, Unmasking Islamic State, Revealing their motivation, theology and end time predictions. This book, and others By Dr. Sookhdeo, can be purchased at this website: http://www.isaac-publishing.us/

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