Green Energy
The New York Times has an - for Americans and other non-Europeans - interesting article up, in my opinion. Dan Bilefsky and Ian Fisher deal with the view the political mainstream in Europe has regarding Islam and integration of Muslims. I recognize myself quite a lot in their description of the changes European political mainstream went through the last couple of years and I think that it might be interesting for Americans (and other non-Europeans) as to understand my own views and simply the situation in Europe better.
More:
Funny enough, the authors of the article then go on and quote an Imam, who explains that "it has become politically correct to attack Islam, and this is making it hard for moderates on both sides to remain reasonable." A - I am afraid to say - typical reaction. He is not willing to point out that, indeed, Muslims are not integrating as well as they should, or that they should not react with violence, no: the cause of all the trouble is... that it has become 'politically correct to attack Islam'.
And that kind of reasoning - the utterly ridiculous victim mentality (the authors of the article quote other Muslims later on who again happily play the victim) - is exactly one of the things we, the political mainstream, are fed up with.
Perhaps the Imam should, you know just for a change, look at the actual causes. Look at why Islam is being criticized (very telling of course that criticizing Islam equals 'attacking' it). Why we criticize the lack of integration of Muslims. Why we are starting to believe more and more that Democracy and Islam are incompatible. That this would not be a problem if Muslims themselves would adapt (to a large degree, religion is what one makes of it), but that a lot of immigrants or their (grand) children seem to be unwilling to do so.
We are not criticizing Islam and demanding integration (/ assimilation) because we enjoy doing it. Heck, we despise extreme right just as much as we despise Muslim extremists.
We wished it would be different, but it is not. We are faced with reality and the reality is that there seems to be no other conclusion possible. We must debate and debate and debate and hopefully this will cause an understanding within the 'Muslim community' and cause a change within it, because if this does not happen, we can count on it that the situation will become highly explosive in the (near) future and / or that we will create a country in which one half lives according to Western values and the other half has created a subculture which is in a lot of ways the opposite of Western culture, or better perhaps said 'Judeo-Christian' culture.
Is that a country we want to create? No. Besides, once such a situation exists one can bet on it that we will also witness an attempt to change (certain) laws, cultural differences will lead to confrontations and in the end we have created a highly explosive situation anyway.
I could go on and on, but I will leave it at this for now.
Cross posted at Liberty and Justice
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Green Energy
European Political Mainstream: Islam Incompatible With European Values
The New York Times has an - for Americans and other non-Europeans - interesting article up, in my opinion. Dan Bilefsky and Ian Fisher deal with the view the political mainstream in Europe has regarding Islam and integration of Muslims. I recognize myself quite a lot in their description of the changes European political mainstream went through the last couple of years and I think that it might be interesting for Americans (and other non-Europeans) as to understand my own views and simply the situation in Europe better.
Europe appears to be crossing an invisible line regarding its Muslim minorities: more people in the political mainstream are arguing that Islam cannot be reconciled with European values.
"You saw what happened with the pope," said Patrick Gonman, 43, the owner of Raga, a funky wine bar in downtown Antwerp, 25 miles from here. "He said Islam is an aggressive religion. And the next day they kill a nun somewhere and make his point.
"Rationality is gone."
Mr. Gonman is hardly an extremist. In fact, he organized a protest last week in which 20 bars and restaurants closed on the night when a far-right party with an anti-Muslim message held a rally nearby.
More:
For years those who raised their voices were mostly on the far right. Now those normally seen as moderates — ordinary people as well as politicians — are asking whether once unquestioned values of tolerance and multiculturalism should have limits.
[...]
When Pope Benedict XVI made the speech last month that included a quotation calling aspects of Islam "evil and inhuman," it seemed to unleash such feelings. Muslims berated him for stigmatizing their culture, while non-Muslims applauded him for bravely speaking a hard truth.
Funny enough, the authors of the article then go on and quote an Imam, who explains that "it has become politically correct to attack Islam, and this is making it hard for moderates on both sides to remain reasonable." A - I am afraid to say - typical reaction. He is not willing to point out that, indeed, Muslims are not integrating as well as they should, or that they should not react with violence, no: the cause of all the trouble is... that it has become 'politically correct to attack Islam'.
And that kind of reasoning - the utterly ridiculous victim mentality (the authors of the article quote other Muslims later on who again happily play the victim) - is exactly one of the things we, the political mainstream, are fed up with.
Perhaps the Imam should, you know just for a change, look at the actual causes. Look at why Islam is being criticized (very telling of course that criticizing Islam equals 'attacking' it). Why we criticize the lack of integration of Muslims. Why we are starting to believe more and more that Democracy and Islam are incompatible. That this would not be a problem if Muslims themselves would adapt (to a large degree, religion is what one makes of it), but that a lot of immigrants or their (grand) children seem to be unwilling to do so.
We are not criticizing Islam and demanding integration (/ assimilation) because we enjoy doing it. Heck, we despise extreme right just as much as we despise Muslim extremists.
We wished it would be different, but it is not. We are faced with reality and the reality is that there seems to be no other conclusion possible. We must debate and debate and debate and hopefully this will cause an understanding within the 'Muslim community' and cause a change within it, because if this does not happen, we can count on it that the situation will become highly explosive in the (near) future and / or that we will create a country in which one half lives according to Western values and the other half has created a subculture which is in a lot of ways the opposite of Western culture, or better perhaps said 'Judeo-Christian' culture.
Is that a country we want to create? No. Besides, once such a situation exists one can bet on it that we will also witness an attempt to change (certain) laws, cultural differences will lead to confrontations and in the end we have created a highly explosive situation anyway.
I could go on and on, but I will leave it at this for now.
Cross posted at Liberty and Justice
-
France: Muslim Student Flies Into a Rage During Lesson on 9/11, Sprays Teacher With Teargas After al-Qaeda Called a "Terrorist Group" From Weasel Zippers: Lyon, France - A 15-year-old French schoolboy sprayed a teacher with teargas after she described...
- A Chance For Moderate Swiss Muslims To Prove Me Wrong
With the referendum to ban minarets passing with 57% of the population in favor of it, the whole of the West has gone crazy. "What are Muslims going to think?", "How can we do this to Muslims? Muslims are not going to be happy about this." "We are Europeans...
- Storm Track Disinformation: Muslim Threat In Europe Overestimated
From The Gathering Storm You really have to wonder if academicians really leave their ivory towers or even read the newspapers. If the did, they wouldn’t be printing tripe like this. A study by U.S. political scientists finds the 15 million Muslims...
- Enabling Extremism
Please read Ami Isseroff's take on the controversy surrounding the lecture of the Pope and more in general, the problem of contemporary Islam. Ami takes on Rami Khouri, a moderate Muslim, who wrote this article for the Daily Star. Khouri, in short,...
- It's Islam Stupid
Amil Imani wrote an article for Islam Watch (in my opinion one of the best anti-Jihad sites on the internet) explaining that the problem with terrorism isn't so much extremism as it is Islam itself. This is one of the things that we need to understand...