Last week a merchant showed up in the town of Unken, Austria in the middle of the night to sell his products (Halal food) to a group of migrants staying at an asylum centre. The centre’s management told the merchant to leave, thinking the noise from the enthused migrants would anger the other residents. However, the decision backfired with the migrants loudly protesting while some even protesting all the way to the town hall. It ended with the expulsion and relocation of six migrants from the centre to another area in Austria.

Other unreported factors could have influenced the anger and frustration of the migrants, but this episode is only a symptom of a much larger issue. There is a major culture war going on in the West between Muslim migrants with Sharia inspired ideals and native Westerners that feel their freedoms and liberties are gradually eroding. Austria is one country at the heart of this war, and if things seem bad in Austria now they are only likely to augment. A leaked document from an Austrian intelligence agency reveals that as many as half a million migrants could be in Austria by the summer of 2016, temporarily stuck in transit.

While more serious incidents such as a mob of Muslim migrants sexually assaulting German women during a New Year’s Eve celebration in Cologne, Germany or Muslims illegally occupying streets during their Friday prayers in Paris, France, rightly capture public attention, another important side of the culture war seems to get lost. How can the West protect Muslims who want to assimilate and break away from their current Shari’a dominated neighborhoods and families? For instance, in Austria, there has been an increase in the amount of Muslims converting to Christianity despite knowing the penalties for apostasy under Sharia. One such example, comes from an elderly Afghan man named Christophe (preferring to use his Christian name because of the fear of retaliation) who is eagerly awaiting baptism in a Vienna church by years’ end. The process of baptism and conversion can be lengthy as noted,

It takes a year to prepare a person for baptism in what is called Right of Christian Initiation of Adults, explained Breitbart, and they spend these months learning more about the faith and church rituals. At the same time, this helps the church and the Asylum Court determine if a person seeking asylum is truly a Christian. Conversion does not mean automatic asylum, however. The risk of persecution one could face in their home country after they have left Islam is considered by the courts, but each case is individually examined.

Whether it’s protecting Europeans from Muslim migrants seeking to impose Islamic traditions incompatible with the West or protecting Muslim migrants who are escaping those very traditions, one thing is clear, time is of the essence.