A refined Muslim culture stands above terror threats and violence. The Muslim world is not equal to the wave of migrants, the people who tipped the fence over at Röszke and “the terrible person in Bicske” who told a Hungarian woman to be happy because he had not raped her, Orbán added.

Commenting on his recent meeting in Cairo with Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, he said they shared the view that it will be best for Europe if it makes every effort to support the stability of Egypt. “We could hardly tolerate in Europe” the consequences of the collapse of Syria which had a population of less than 30 million, Orbán said.

Compared to that, Egypt is a country of 90 million, and if it destabilises and “once the people set off from there, we will not be able to cope”, he added. He said the Imam was right in that the EU should cast aside its “usual European prejudices” and focus on fully supporting the current Egyptian leadership. If there is no successful Egyptian leadership and strong and united army, Europe will have to face another wave of migrants which will be three times as large, he added.

Orbán urged Europe to rethink its foreign policy, noting that interventions had been made in three countries—Iraq, Syria and Libya—in the recent period, and all three had fallen to pieces, chaos had emerged and migrants in their millions had embarked from these places.

“This madness is done in the name of exporting democracy … so that with the notions of European culture and methods proven over here we are trying, unsolicited, to make another civilization, another culture with people who think differently, happy. This has failed,” Orbán said.

“The chaos in the Middle East and the painful consequences for Europe are proof for me that it is not possible to export democracy either using weapons or peaceful methods.” On the subject of Libya, he said that one possibility was for Europe to eagerly take the side of the Libyan government and recognise the Libyan army and accept arming them.

The other possibility, he said, was for European soldiers, under international authority, to land in Libya where a massive refugee camp must be established and receive people trying to get to Europe. “Indeed, those who have arrived in Europe illegally must be sent there,” he said.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.