Storm Track Disinformation: Reading Between the Lines

Like most current event bloggers, I read hundreds of articles staying up to date on facts and opinions looking for ideas for posts. In the process, you can learn a lot from articles by al-Reuters. So I decided to dissect one reading between the lines that shows the perfect picture of the entire problem that Europe faces today with its Muslim communities. My comments are underlined.

• PARIS (Reuters) - Britain's heated debate about Islamic veils reflects a growing frustration with Muslims in Europe that risks further isolating these minorities rather than integrating them (And just how have they been isolated before to be further isolated? Perhaps it’s because of their documented refusal to assimilate? Reuters again makes it sound like it was Europe’s fault.) leading European Muslim activists say (Consider the source.). The new tone in Britain, which Muslims on the continent long saw as a model of tolerance where criticizing minorities was politically incorrect, marks a watershed in the way Europeans talk about Islam, they told Reuters. Islamist radicalism, ethnic segregation and clashes of values must be discussed openly, they agreed, but the increasingly polarised debate squeezes out moderates on both sides (Read dhimmis on one side and “Muslim moderates? That often read about but seldom seen species of Islam?). "Intolerance is growing in Europe," said Dalil Boubakeur, president of France's Muslim Council, who saw the new mood as a response to security fears and the radicalisation of a small minority of Muslims who do not accept European values. (There’s that small minority again. Let’s see, most surveys say that less than 5% of Muslims fit into the extremist category. That means given the population of 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, ONLY 500 million are extremists. How nice.)

• "There is a sense we are living in a different time," said Dilwar Hussain, head of policy research at the Islamic Foundation in Britain. The activists said politicians and the media blamed religion for problems that are really economic and social, such as unemployment and discrimination (That’s the same old Islamist line. But most of the 9-11 terrorists were well educated and come from middle class families. It’s not economic and social factors that produce extremists – it’s the ideology, stupid!) "Before, we were just immigrants from Turkey or Morocco or other places, but then they found something to combine us (We ‘found’ something to combine you? Are you all Muslims or not?)," said Famile Arslan from the Dutch group Islam and Citizenship. "All immigrant problems have been Islamised. All Muslims have been criminalised," she said. (99% of all terrorist acts committed in Europe over the last 10 years have been committed by Muslims.) European policies towards Muslim minorities have ranged from the tolerant British and Dutch "multicultural" path to France's strict ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools. But the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh and the bombings in Madrid and London have deepened concerns about whether Europe's 15 million Muslims all accept European values. "Europeans were stunned to see that even people who were quite integrated could do these things," Boubakeur said. Ali Kizilkaya, head of Germany's Muslim Council, said Muslims were now seen "as a kind of security problem" (And for good reason).

• Yazid Sabeg, France's most successful Muslim businessman, accused the media of tarring all Muslims with the terrorist brush. "Demonising Islam by confusing it with Islamism is the new opium of the people," he complained. One reflex by politicians and the media -- to call on Muslim leaders to denounce violence any time Islamist radicals strike -- was misguided because it identified the peaceful majority with crimes they did not support, the activists argued. (And that’s the gist of the problem. Islamism is the ideology and we must hold every Muslim’s feet to the fire and have them stand on one side the fence of the other. Non-Islamist Muslims need to get visible in their host countries and visible fast or else they risk being grouped with those who support the Islamist ideology.) "Muslims in Europe feel the need to apologise for deeds they didn't contribute to," Arslan explained. (Umm. Am I missing something? I heard no such apologies.)

• "Muslims are not a homogenous group," said Arslan. "There is no Muslim community. Maybe that is our biggest problem." Hussain agreed: "There isn't anything like a coherent group of people you can tell what to do or what not to do." (Really? I thought all good Muslims believe in the Koran and the teachings of Mohammed. And that doesn’t tell Muslims what they can and can not do. Yeah, sure.)While most activists said public clashes could degenerate into anti-immigrant campaigns, one Danish Muslim leader said the uproar over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad there earlier this year had helped calm tensions by promoting a dialogue (DIALOGUE? It was pretty much one-way and more like appeasement when other papers refused to support the right of the free press to defend the right of free speech.). "The cartoon crisis did function as a wake-up call for both Danish politicians and Muslim leaders," said Yildiz Akdogan, spokeswoman for the Democratic Muslims group. When more such cartoons surfaced this month, the government promptly denounced them and Muslim leaders avoided exploiting the issue, she said. "The final outcome is good." (Sure was. Good little dhimmis. Don’t defend the rights that millions have died for in Europe over the centuries.)

The bottom line is this.

If political correctness and multiculturalism programs were so successful, why the terrorist bombings in Europe? Europe is learning a hard lesson that by not defending its culture by appeasing another will result in Western Europe being absorbed by a culture that is the anthissis to its own.