The German parliament just voted in favor of same-sex “marriage,” and to the wonder of all, all six Muslim members of the Bundestag also voted in favor.

Well, make that to the wonder of all the “rubes.” Sophisticated people wouldn’t be astonished. They’ve always contended that Muslims will have no problem assimilating into Western culture, even with all its oddities. For example, after the vote, activist Felipe Henriques tweeted, “Most Germans and all Muslim MPs believe in equality. Who needs integration?

“Who needs integration?” The implication is that Muslims are by and large already integrated into German society. In other words, they’ve learned to go with the flow. And the flow, judging by the 393-226 vote in the Bundestag, is in the direction of sexual license.

So according to one sophisticate, Muslim MPs voted for same-sex marriage because they believe in equality. That’s one way of looking at it. But is it possible that they could have had another motive?

Did the 387 non-Muslim MPs stop to think that the legalization of same-sex “marriage” is just a step on the way to the legalization of polygamy? The arguments that are used to justify SSM can just as easily be used to justify multiple-partner marriages. If marriage is no longer to be confined to one man and one woman, why not allow one man and four women?

Italy’s largest Muslim umbrella group, the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations, has already demanded the legalization of polygamy on the grounds that Italian law permits same-sex civil unions.

Could it be that the Muslim MPs in Germany who voted “for” had something else in mind besides equality for gays and lesbians? In the long run, the decision will work to the advantage of Muslims, even those Muslims who are adamantly opposed to same-sex “marriage.”

Some believe the advantage is a demographic one. For instance, the founder of the aforementioned Italian Islamic union has stated that polygamy will increase the population. That’s not necessarily so, because polygamy for some men acts to squeeze other men out of the marriage market altogether, thus potentially cancelling out the higher birth rates of polygamous families. Whatever the case, there are other more subtle advantages that will accrue to the Muslim community if polygamy is legitimized.

It’s not so much that polygamy will accelerate Muslim population growth, but that its introduction will be one more victory for the Islamic way of doing things. Although societies that allow polygamy do have higher fertility rates, it’s not clear that polygamy is the reason.

What is increasingly clear, however, is that the more cultural markers Muslims are able to lay down, the more difficult it will be to prevent Islamization. Halal-only meals in public schools? Prayer services blocking public streets? The call to prayer broadcast by loudspeakers over entire neighborhoods? Burqas everywhere? Parallel sharia courts? Blasphemy trials in European courts for those who dare criticize Islam?

This is the new normal in Europe, and the old European norms are more and more being made to submit to the new ones.

It’s the Islamic version of “We’re here, we’re queer. Get used to it.” So when polygamy comes to Germany, it may not make a great difference population-wise, but it will be one more significant step on the way to turning Western culture into an Islamic one.

Just as the counterculture of the 1960s in America became the established culture by the end of the century, so the Islamic counterculture in Germany seems destined to become the dominant culture within a couple of decades. Polygamy may or may not increase the birth rate, but cultural confidence does.

People who have strong beliefs and a sense of mission tend to have children. People who lack strong beliefs tend to put off childbearing – sometimes indefinitely. And people who “marry” people of the same sex seem uninterested in procreation.

Which brings us back to the same-sex “marriage” vote in the Bundestag. When the measure was approved, rainbow-colored confetti filled the chamber, and hundreds of MPs gave a standing ovation. But what were they celebrating? Gay marriage may have a future in Germany, but there is no future in gay marriage.

By their very nature, same-sex unions don’t produce future generations. That’s why all societies up until recent times declined to put homosexual relationships on a par with heterosexual ones. German maternity wards are not going to be filled with the progeny of gay and lesbian couples. But it looks very much as though they will be filled with the children of those who believe not in a Master Race but a Master Religion.

The Muslim MPs who voted for same-sex “marriage” most likely don’t want it for themselves or their kin. They want it for the Gutmenschen of Germany because they correctly perceive that marriage equality is one more way for the Germans to commit cultural suicide.

Most probably, the vote of the Muslim MPs was a tactical maneuver. The game of chess was developed in Muslim lands and this looks very much like a chess move: one sacrifices a pawn now so that one can capture a queen later.

If Germans and other Europeans don’t wake up, all their queens, kings, rooks, knights, and bishops will eventually end up in the hands of another and very different culture. And same-sex “marriage” will be nothing but a distant memory.

This article originally appeared in the July 12, 2017 edition of The Catholic Thing.