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	Political correctness is to thought what sentimentality is to compassion. We disarmed ourself, Europe, in advance of the struggle, West facing Islam

The young Muslim student at an American University learns about post-modernism and post-structuralism, ideologies of profound influence in the modern West. Asked to disprove them, Islamic activist leaders, groups, cannot. He grows confused, belief in Islam as a timeless truth is shaken. Only the less intelligent will remain Muslim.

	I myself find much that is good in France, Germany and the UK but overall I agree with him when he says Europe is a failing civilisation following Islam into chaos. He sees no conflict with China brewing, at this time, they are too dependent on US consumption.

	I teach in a university in Oman, a deeply religious Islamic country. Women are rarely seen outside the house. Many wear a face-veil when venturing outside. Headscarves are mandatory for my female students but the veil is not allowed. Stop confusing common sense with ‘Islamophobia’. If the Oman government sees the veil as a barrier to communication, then why can’t we in the West. Females can wear a veil but cannot be expected to be treated as an equal while covering the face in public or conversational situations.

	For the British mainstream, multiculturalism has been the official civic religion for so long that any criticism of any minority group has become the equivalent of profanity. The Islamic fundamentalists, the extremists have long understood that they need only suggest a racial bias.

	Only your own steady reason and right discrimination, with a generous open heart, can guide you between the plethora of subjective, often opposing viewpoints: religion, agnosticism, humanism, atheism or apathy. Freedom (for the West) is eternal vigilance, a saying going back to Plato and even the Sanskrit 1,500 years before him.

	Muslim immigrants, he said, choose to but do not have to live in France. But ‘if you do, you respect its rules, you are not a polygamist, you do not inflict female genital mutilation on your daughters, you do not slit the throat of sheep and you respect republican policies and rules’.

	British Muslims need guidance from the majority (indigenous UK community and government) to show them what proper minority status (1.7 –2 m. in a 61 m. nation) requires of them. Most Muslims have never discussed whether they want Sharia law in Britain or not; often most do not understand what issues like this are actually about.

	In this tumult of change, many are baffled and veer between secure dogmas of the past and every avant-garde notion that captures their fancy.

REJECTORS, APPEASERS, REALISTS
Integration of Muslims into Western societies? There are three main ‘groups’ claiming prominence. One, the Rejectors. Two, the Appeasers. Three, the Realists. The rejectors say Muslims must leave Islam or either willingly or forcibly be removed from western societies. Their argument: there is more chance of Hell Freezing Over than there is of integrating Muslims into any type of civilisation. They will always present (from among their ranks) a security threat. The appeasers believe in an open door policy because of injustices meted out in the West to Muslims. Even demands, considered by some in the West as outrageous, must be considered maybe accepted. An Islamic Caliphate may arise in the West. The project of assimilation/integration in the West must be given a chance, say the realists, for the good of the human race. A process must be found to respect both side’s interests.
(précis of Kashmiri Nomad website, January 2007)

	While secular (Middle East) tyrants might conclude that since they cannot militarily defeat Israel, prudence would dictate entering into a peace treaty with the Zionists, this approach is not Islamic and would be defied.

	France, Germany, the UK – and America have all made the mistake of allowing millions to immigrate (from the Islamic Middle East and further a field) without enfranchising them or assuring their loyalty as citizens.

	Political Islam is under challenge from its own rhetoric. The need is to be self-critical, share responsibility for the failure of Muslim societies, do not simply blame the (materialist) West for all the problems.

	Slavery of the mind is as evil as slavery of the body. Islamo-fascism enslaves them both.

	I came across this: “Islam teaches human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, we have a duty to human dignity.” With Islam’s good name besmirched, how can this eminent Islamic scholar mouth these words today?

	While the ‘veil’ imposed by the country’s clerical leaders has served to obscure the real Iran from the outside world, it has failed to keep the world out of Iran. Many clerics now have their own websites.

	A woman stumbles about beneath a mountain of black cloth, while her husband strides around in jeans? A young girl forced to enter into a marriage with a much older man? These are scandalous matters, no matter what culture you belong to.

There are fewer Muslims in America (estimates vary 4 m to 7 m) than Europe (estimates vary 13 m to 17 m). Pockets of (Muslim) Europe today “look like the US prior to civil rights”. American Muslims are generally better educated, from the Middle East and wealthier. The government offers little (public) resistance to practising Islam and building mosques and children of immigrants can have citizenship. Restrictive citizenship laws apply more in Europe.

	There are believed 10,000 to 11,000 Muslim imams in western Europe: 2,000 in Germany 1,600 in UK, France 1,600. Netherlands has 400, 250 Sweden and 150 Denmark The rest is guesswork as most countries do not know an exact number of mosques (many are believed back-yard or small house mosques). All this is obviously of concern to security agencies and to Muslim ‘leaders’ themselves.

	In France of 1,000 Muslim imams identified, about half worked full-time. Less than half of them received regular payment, the reminder ‘in kind’ or not paid. Imams were “out of touch” with younger European-born generations and do not speak the language. One-third spoke French with ease, a third with difficulty, the rest not at all.

	Substantial numbers of young Muslims hold extreme views. It is nothing to worry about. Badly thought-through, extreme political positions, are adopted. But today’s Qur’an waving young fanatic is likely to be tomorrow’s investment banker.

	Thanks to a baby boom encouraged by Khomeini, more than 70 per cent of Iran’s population is now under 30. Many of the richer young Iranians were educated in the West. Among the younger population there is a thirst for Western culture.

	National security and religious toleration are now widely regarded as interrelated. A partnership between Muslim associations and government may help separate extremists from the faith. But are European Muslims willing to become (effective) partners in counter-terrorism?

WHO IS AFRAID OF WHOM AND WHY ?
A senior Muslim police officer, serving in the Metropolitan Police, London, has written a book ‘Not One Of Us’ criticising colleagues for an alleged vendetta against him. Colleagues say it has not been blocked because of fears of a backlash from some ethnic minority officers. “Sheer bloody anarchy reigns – who is afraid of whom and why?” asked a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority.
(report précis, UK national newspaper, March 2007).

	A new Muslim political elite is growing in western Europe. But while there are 15 million plus Muslims in western Europe, only about 25 have been elected to European parliaments. There is political resistance and concern over security to be overcome in extending recognition and representation to Muslims.

	People are desperate for real information: objective, knowledgeable, giving trustworthy perspectives on other belief systems.

	His call for ‘allocation of faith services’ in the NHS could be interpreted as natural demand of a community (1.7 - 2 m Muslims in 61 m UK citizens) which has found its feet.

Islamist extremism in Britain must be stopped and British values reasserted. But we appear to be doing nothing (effective) to stop the spread of radical Islamism. In many ways we give out the lethal message that we have neither the will nor the courage to defend our way of life. Muslims are being ‘recruited’ because next to nothing is being done to stop it. (UK national newspaper article, May 2007)

	Immigrant Muslims widely disdain Western civilisation, especially its sexuality, divorce, low morals. Nowhere in Europe are Muslims being assimilated, rarely does inter-marriage take place.

	His call for discrimination in favour of Muslims on the NHS (National Health Service, UK) is a medical version of ‘identity politics’ which hinder.

SO MODERN WORLD IS BAFFLING ?
So you say the ‘condition of the modern world is baffling’? And ‘we thought two world wars in the 20th century was disastrous for civilisation.’ So the new century ‘has brought violence on a smaller, more widespread, more vicious scale’. Go to the Hindu, the Sanskrit for the universal philosophy. It can be interpretive of our current world existence. It gives a good reflection of ignorance and ‘religiosity.’ It leaves Islam’s claims of true understanding a bit flat. The Kali Yuga is this age of darkness, one of four huge cycles in the existence of humanity. We are but 5,000 years into the 400,000 or so years (who’s counting!) or the complete Yuga. It will get darker. Ignorance is like a pall over humanity. The ‘science of reason’ is no longer followed. Teachers with false reputation for learning will mislead. We are at our furthest from God. In this cycle, rulers become unreasonable, they do not promote spirituality. Avarice and wrath are common. Even pre-teenage girls will become pregnant. People migrate, flee countries. Yet love, eternal love, becomes more available as the age proceeds. So………anything which helps shine Light is most welcome. If ‘Islam’ and its sources (Mohammad pbuh, Hadith, Sunnah, its legions of scholars) can help, it is most welcome. Its political strings and blind beliefs are its weakness, mitigating against it as a universal modifying antidote within Kali Yuga. I could go on, but go look for yourself.
(excerpts from philosophic/spiritual email, autumn 2006, to author from American friend I did go look for myself, and included a lot from Wikipedia – author)

	The neo-conservatives (in the USA) shake their collective heads and blame the terrorists, as they (neo-cons) take from us the rights to freedom of speech, freedom to congregate, and freedom from government invasion. They say it is not what they want to do but what they have to do as we are ‘at war’.

	Muslims, Christians, Jews, others, working in isolation and often in deadly hostility to one another, still come up with the same questions, the same (sense of) values. It is affirming, tells us something about our humanity (if you are in a state to hear!)

	Imagine the outrage if a mainstream Muslim leader were to stand up and denounce the Pope as depraved. Yet we find neo-conservative Christian leaders (in the USA) engaging in similar slander against the most important person in Islamic history.

	Christians in Muslim-majority countries are deprived of human rights. Muslims here in the West enjoy full democratic rights. They should truly appreciate this, be grateful for these rights, and not try to abuse them.

	Multicultural policies have encouraged Muslims to seek special recognition. Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Bahai’s and others in Britain do not feel they need this special attention. None produce those who resort to violent means in search of it.

	The problem (in UK) is not so much Muslim separation as a desire in some quarters to ‘Islamize’ Britain (1.7 – 2 m Muslims, 61 m. population). Such Islamic aggression is gaining ground (and an outcry) because of the collapse of British majority values.

	(If we are to talk present-past) while American policies, institutions and individuals were subject to unremitting criticism, sometimes deadly attack, the Soviets were immune. Their retention of the vast, largely Muslim colonial empire accumulated by the Czars in Asia passed unnoticed, as did their (multiple) propaganda and sometimes (multiple) action against Muslim beliefs and institutions.

KNOW THE FIVE PILLARS
The Five Pillars of Islam. The first is recitation of the creed or shahada: There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his prophet. The second is daily ritual prayer, slat. Five times per day. The third, zakat, is giving of a percentage of one’s wealth to poor and homeless, charity. Fourth is fasting, during the lunar month of Ramadan. Fifth pillar is the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.
(Frank Zindler, 2002)

	If Muslim patients wish to receive treatment that is compatible with their religious inclinations, the (UK) National Health Service is unlikely to meet their requirements.

	Will Muslims wake up before it is too late? The blaming of all Muslim problems on Jews is a cancer that is destroying Muslim society from within. As Muslims we have a problem with violent extremism. We should not be afraid to admit that so many of our religious leaders belong behind bars and not behind a pulpit.

	More than a third of Muslims (in a UK poll) agreed that one of the benefits of living in modern (Western) society is the freedom to criticise other people’s political or religious views, even when it causes offence.

DEMOCRATIC, NOT WESTERN, VALUES ?
In the Third Millennium, with the inexorable reach of globalisation, a phrase such as 'Western Values' should have been consigned to the Bloom-bin of history, and a rather more accurate (Western) 'democratic values' substituted. Also, if one is going to study (by Poll) the disparate communities labelled as 'British Muslims', one has to also study the (successful) integration processes (in UK) of British Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and Chinese.
(email response to article, UK national newspaper, February 2007)

	Britain’s first Government Commission for Cohesion and Integration astoundingly contained no Christian representative in its members (in 2006).

	There are 5.5 million Israelis, surrounded by 350 million Arab Muslims.

	I’m a Mum, and at my child’s school there are several niqabi (completely-veiled) mums. I do not say hello easily, because I am unsure in recognising them. They probably feel I am stand-offish, rude, even racist. Conversation is hard, I try, but others do not. They say it is like having a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign stuck over faces.

	Observance of ‘outer’ Muslim law is only the first step, say the Sufis (mystical wing of Islam). It helps sever the attachment to earthly things (in the present).

Globalisation and immigration have ensured that almost no-one is ‘foreign’ any more. Real foreigners, the ones with guns and headscarves, they are off-limits (to comedians) largely due to the fear of provoking WWIII. There was a more innocent time, when a Danish cartoon could not bring about a threatened apocalypse.

	Muslims repeatedly say Muslim women have more rights in Islam than women do in the USA and Canada. Islam gave women the right to vote 1400 years ago but women in the West only got the right to vote 100 years ago. Name one country today, ruled by Islamic Shari’ah law, where women are permitted to vote?

	She talked to many of her fellow British Muslim women, about the niqab veil. Most (educated young women) say it is free personal choice. They are a minority in a tiny minority. And those who are ‘pressured’ by husbands or fathers are a minority in a minority of a minority.

	There is a difference between Islam as a religious practice (spiritual rituals, worship, and faith in God and the five pillars) and political Islam, where Islam serves as an ideology with a vision to create a viable political Muslim entity.

	The claim that there is a ‘police-state Britain for Muslims’ is laughable. It is profoundly offensive to every decent, law-abiding British citizen. It is an insult to our (relatively) fair and tolerant society. It is contemptible.

MEDIEVAL AGE RELICS REJECTED
Mainstream Muslims have long rejected wife-beatings (as being lawful) and seen it as a relic of the medieval age, Muslim leaders in Germany are reported to have said. But a divorce court judge gave a “strange” ruling, referring to a Koran verse seemingly indicating that a man’s “honour” is injured, when his wife behaves in an unchaste manner eg a Western lifestyle. There was evidence of violence and threats of murder by the husband. The judge said the Koran sanctions such physical abuse. Critics said it placed German law below Sharia law regarding individual freedom, equality before the law and women’s rights. They went on that Muslims in Germany must obey German law, the Koran was being misunderstood, medieval age relics are rejected. Who knows what else mainstream Muslims might admit to rejecting as medieval? asked the email correspondent
(email correspondence, leading UK website March, 2007)

	Common sense is rather missing in this fog of misinformation (about Muslim veils). It’s considered rude to cover your mouth when speaking. If a constituent had done this before me, when I was a local councillor, I would have felt at least uncomfortable. So it is nothing to do with freedom to wear what you want, nor freedom of religion.

	Islam is not a religion, to consider it so (today) is a foolish mistake that could cost millions of lives. Islam is a political movement set to conquer the world. It is the Borg of the non-fictional world. Islam (and Islamism) has one goal, to assimilate or to destroy.

	Islamists socially infiltrate their own people, then undermine the democratic educational system, then they infiltrate the constitutional state.

	There is no even-handed-ness between tyranny and freedom, whether the tyranny is religious or secular. Tyranny is non-freedom, anywhere in the world.

	As with the devout Muslim, the world’s Quakers too are unshakeable in their belief that God is in every minute of their lives; they can thus only embrace the opposite of violence.

	God has given people free-will, and the measure of one's faith (and realisation) is one's thoughts and actions. Though human beings are also created weak and regularly fall into sin, the avenue of repentance is always open. We (Muslims and non-Muslims) are not inherently "corrupt" or in need of repair.

	Sufis believe that the reality that constitutes Sufism issues from the inner meaning of the Qur’an and the inner nature of the Prophet.

MUSLIM LEADERS MUST CONVINCE US
When confronted by extremist preachers, who carried on their subversive and dangerous activities wrapped in the cloak of Shari’a law, and with the appalling carnage of 7/7/2005, with videos saying the perpetrators were acting in accordance with Shari’a, scared citizens naturally assume a connection with extremism. It is up to Muslim imam, and leaders of the Muslim communities, to convince the wider UK community that this is not the case, and they too should not blame the government and its foreign policy for it.
(email response to article in UK national newspaper, February 2007)

	There is no term for Holy War in Arabic. The word jihad translates to ‘struggle’. It refers to the difficult effort that is needed to put God’s Will into practice at every level – personal and social as well as political, rooting out wrong-doing from one’s own society as well as one’s heart.

	Amsterdam and Rotterdam are on track to be by about 2015 the first major European cities with majority Muslim populations. Russia may have a Muslim majority in the population by 2050.

	By 2025 possibly earlier Islam in ‘religious totals’ will have a 30 per cent ‘world following’ and Christianity just 28 per cent. Muslim births-per-population is three-plus compared with the West’s 2.6 births.

	Jihad is one of the most moral and most honourable concepts in Islam. It is the definition of self-sacrifice and altruism. It demands adherence to values and ideals that are in tune with the spirit and character of America.

	The non-Islamic culture is no panacea but it has one outstanding feature that the Islamic culture lacks – it allows for liberty, with all its attendant drawbacks. For those who have experienced liberty, no inducement is likely to persuade them to give it up.

WHICH CHANGES ARE INEVITABLE ?
Present trends (2000) uninterrupted by catastrophe seem set to continue. All recognise that Muslims have responded badly and largely unsuccessfully to the challenges of the 20th century, in fact to the last three centuries. Faced with the triumph of the West, we have not been able to work out which changes are inevitable, which can be resisted. Oil riches have kept many countries afloat.
(website article, Abdel-Hakim Murad, 1999)

	The affected have raised their voices in the fight against radicals. The silence has ended. The courageous are raising their voices. Including the support of educated, democratic Muslim women. All are paying dearly. Should we remain silent out of fear?

	It is not absurd that we do not gather (NHS, UK) statistics on the basis of faith. Faith is not a primary indicator for health, unlike country of origin, social class, education.

	The moderate Muslims are beginning to realize they have had their religion hijacked by extremists.

	His call for ‘personalised services’ for Muslims (in the NHS, UK) could be seen as the further development of Separatism by the Muslim community (in the UK), a demand for ‘special treatment for itself’.

Islam teaches that life is a test, and that all human beings will be accountable before God. A sincere belief in the life hereafter is key to leading a well-balanced and moral life. Otherwise, life is viewed as an end in itself, which causes human beings to become more selfish, materialistic and immoral.

	(In the UK) there is a cultural divide between Muslims and the rest of us, more than say with the Afro-Caribbean community. We should look at the subject of (requiring) Asian women to speak English before they are given a settlement visa.

IMAMS ACT ON FORCED MARRIAGES
Changing mindsets (about forced marriage) is the priority. (Some) imams in the UK are slowly being convinced that the practice is wrong and are refusing to perform Islamic ceremonies if they suspect the marriage is being forced. This takes away the sense of legitimacy and that’s the next hurdle – making forced marriage illegal. There are steps to be taken towards (seeking to find out) if the parties are happy to enter into the union.
(UK website by Pakistan academic in UK, February 2007)

	Among the liberties (in the West) in need of protection is to voice opinions that upset others, a freedom to believe or not to believe in religion, and a freedom of artistic expression.

	The war of words is part of a larger debate going on in Britain, the war within the Muslim community for the hearts and minds of young people.

	Islamists perceive Islam as an all-encompassing socio-political system, regarding ‘capitalism’ as a rival and an enemy. Acceptance (of capitalism) could only be by a supplement of a set of moral values that emphasises care for poor and needy.

	We are trying to stop a Muslim female going to school dressed in a black sack. (In the UK) this girl has enough problems without giving her more grief. She hasn’t much of a life to look forward to, so go easy on her.

	Islam and Christianity have similarities but Muslims seem to operate on a different wave-length. Beneath the surface we are poles apart.

	A Muslim woman in a nijab (eyes-only veil) is a human being, but does she have to look like a bat in daylight? Does God want this?

	Total fertility rate in Europe today averages about 1.4 children per woman; 2.1 children per woman is needed to sustain the population. One-third of that requirement is not being born. Europe needs immigrants, and the imported third tends to be Muslim, in part because of the poverty, violence and tyranny so prevalent in the Muslim world today.

	Muslim communities (in the UK) have problems (one Poll says) on infant mortality and chronic illness, and why their status as Muslims predisposes them to these is unclear. Habits of smoking (among parents), living in relative poverty, even inability to speak English are better indicators in analysis of health and life expectancy?

IDEAL CONDITIONS FOR APPEASEMENT
Until very recently, our (UK New) Labour government was allowing its dealings with Britain’s Muslim minority (1.7 - 2 m out of 61 m) to be controlled by an un-elected group, the Muslim Council of Britain, which stood for everything social democrats were against. In their desperate attempts to ingratiate themselves, Government Ministers gave the MCB leader a Knighthood. He (the leader) had said that death was too good for Salman Rushdie, British citizen and novelist. There is an insidious fear that has produced ideal conditions for appeasement. Radical Islam does worry Europeans, but we are trying to prevent an explosion by going along with Islamist victimhood. We blame ourselves for the Islamist rage; our admission of guilt will pacify our enemies. We are scared but not scared enough to take a stand.
(UK journalist in article, book and reviews, Feb 2007)

	This (TV) programme abused our soldiers’ mission. What does it say about their (programme-makers’) moral courage that the broader context of the war our soldiers are fighting – the bloody struggle against militant Islam – just does not get highlighted?

	Mass education and mass communications is slowly transforming the Muslim majority world, a broad geographical crescent stretching from North Africa, through Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Indonesian archipelago. Muslim belief and practice is widely being examined and debated (this was said before 9/11).

In such a morally degraded world, his (Australia’s) initiative is so rare as to be utterly startling. He standards up for what he thinks right without fear of hostile reaction. He calls a spade a spade. Throughout the West there is currently a major problem of political leadership. Disinterested statesmanship is not possible as the political class is no longer sure what, if anything, it still believes.

SILENTLY GIVING UP THE FAITH
In the Middle East, many Muslims do convert to Christianity. However, Muslim conversion to Christianity never get to the news media for fear of being apostate and killed by the ‘merciful’ Islamists. Who counts those Muslims, who either convert themselves to Christianity, or just silently give up their faith in Islam? No Muslim will announce publicly that he has left Islam; therefore, be certain that most Muslims will seldom tell you that they have left Islam.
(précis, article, Syed Mirza 2003)

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