European Islamophobia A Creeping Threat: Analysis

The murder of Marwa Sherbini, a veiled (and pregnant) Egyptian woman, as she prepared to give evidence in a German courtroom against a man who physically assaulted her, has incensed the Muslim World and re-ignited the debate over whether Europe is a truly tolerant society or one on the cusp of xenophobic extremism.

Muslims say the attitudes which prevailed in early 20th century European history and gave rise to the Holocaust are similar in nature to the climate of intimidation and violence Muslim communities must increasingly endure in contemporary Europe.

Today, Muslims in Europe are seen as existing outside of a democratic culture. A resurgence of social Darwinism as applied to libertarian theory--that democratic ideals are inherently superior to ideals of other cultures--has alienated Muslims and created a cultural backlash against them.

A hostile view of Islam began in the 8th century when Muslims expanded into the Iberian Peninsula. Islam was rejected as a fundamental religion and seen as a direct challenge to Christianity; Muslims were seen as heretics and their prophet a diabolical fraud.

In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, considered the pinnacle of Western literature in the 13th century, the Prophet Muhammad and his cousin Ali are cast to the ninth circle of Hell--one created for schismatics and sowers of discord.

In Giovanni Da Modena's 1415 painting The Last Judgment, which adorns a cathedral in Bologna, the prophet is depicted as a scantily-clad, turbaned, and bearded man writhing in agony as he is pulled into hell by demons.

With Muslims' increased migration to Europe, fear of an Eastern culture in the midst of Western ideals dominated the discourse.

Soumayya Ghannoushi, a researcher in the history of ideas at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, believes:

"The medieval Christian view of Islam as a deviant, violent, licentious and heretical creed was secularized, stripped of its transcendental character and rearticulated within a modern essentialist philosophy that continues to define the terms of Western discourse on Islam, in its mainstream at least."

In 1997, the London-based Runnymede Charity published a report entitled "Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All."

Updated in 2004, it found that Muslims were seen as the "other" and as lacking in values held by Western cultures. Islam was also seen as violent, aggressive, terroristic and inferior to Western ideals.

More importantly, hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and their exclusion from mainstream society, the report found.

In a final note of caution, the report also found that among Europeans anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural or normal.

Such findings help explain why cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad published in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2006 should not be seen as experiments in journalistic freedoms; the cartoons were not borne in a vacuum.

The Jyllands-Posten cartoon depicting a bearded Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban is suspiciously similar to a 1940's cartoon in the German Der Sturmer magazine which depicts a Jew as Satan.

Muhammad, a Muslim, and the Der Sturmer Jew are bearded. Both wear religious head garments, and both are depicted as icons of evil in contemporary society.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Muslim communities in non-Islamic countries have come to fear the very pogroms which targeted the Jews in 1930s Europe.

Given the racism many Muslims endure in Europe, the murder of an Egyptian woman because she wore a hijab should not be dismissed as the act of a lone man who many are now calling insane.

Her murder comes amid increased media coverage of Muslims as outsiders unable to conform to Western ideologies, a growing anti-immigrant backlash in Europe, the resurgence of right-wing extremist groups even within the political establishments, and the decline in continental economic dividends. These must be seen as mutually inclusive.

While many countries around the world have enacted anti-hate speech laws and legislature to combat anti-Semitism, there is still no international consensus that equates Islamophobia with racism.

In its 2004 annual report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) found that:

"Islamophobia continues to manifest itself in different guises. Muslim communities are the target of negative attitudes, and sometimes, violence and harassment. They suffer multiple forms of discrimination, including sometimes from certain public institutions. ECRI is worried about the current climate of hostility against persons who are or are believed to be Muslim."

There is, indeed, a cultural divide as ECRI points out:

"One of the new faces of racism today is "cultural" racism. According to this notion of racism, cultures are pre-defined entities, largely seen as homogenous, unchangeable and, more importantly, incompatible with each other."

Between 1939 and 1945, six million Jews were brutally gassed, burned and slaughtered by an intolerant, racist Nazi ideology which considered them to be untermenschen - inferiors.

This term is apt today to describe how some European extremist groups view Muslims.

In Mein Kamp, Hitler said of the Jews:

"Gradually I began to hate them. For me this was the time of the greatest spiritual upheaval I have ever gone through. I have ceased to be a weak-kneed cosmopolitan and have become an anti-Semite."

Jews around the world hold remembrance ceremonies of the Holocaust and say "never again."

Sherbini's death must not be in vain. It must now be reiterated that Muslim and non-Muslim leaders carefully face the great cultural gap that divides them - and breach it.

Muslim leaders must continue to emphasize the guiding principles of their faith - justice, tolerance, charity, compassion and equality - and speak out against honor killings, which are not uncommon among their communities in Europe.

European leaders must immediately condemn Sherbini's murder, hold her killer accountable, and acknowledge that Islamophobia is a growing threat.

Otherwise, Europe is precariously close to repeating the horrors of the past.

For further reading on Marwa Sherbini's murder, click here.

Comments

[Ricey]

The murder of this woman was a terrible tragedy and a vicious hate crime. That being said, I've read through the arguments on both sides from moderntimes1 to tyruler. Both sides seem to make some good arguments but seem to talk over each other in regards to a few things. I would like to ask a few direct questions to both sides:
1) What justice is there to be gained in having "religious courts" (regardless of religious sect) that can't be obtained in secular courts? What I'm finding hard to understand is the rational behind avoiding secular courts in favor of religious ones unless they are a way to obtain a different verdict then one would get by going before a typical court. Can someone explain this?
2)If European countries do have special religious courts, like some have said regarding British Jewish courts, then are these courts subject to British Law? Do they undermine the rights and freedoms conferred upon British people by standard law and human rights? If not then whats the harm in having a Sharia Court if any Sharia law that is in contravention of the rights of British people would not be permitted anyways?
3)Could somebody give a real example of one benefit from having in place a Sharia Court in a European Muslim Community?

[Rumplestiltskin]

The "threat" of "Islamophobia" may or may not be real, but it could only help if Muslims were a little less libertyphobic.

[ModernTimes1]

LOL.

[Atcha]

As the author of this blog is trying to interpret the act of a madman into a significant cultural trend I wonder why he doesn't feel the need to extrapolate in the same way when, for instance, a priest is murdered in Turkey

[longtimegone]

Most of the comments have wasted precious little time with the actual murder in their rush to extrapolate away from it in ever widening circles; the same can be said for those who commented on the article yesterday, yet it only seems to bother you in this one instance.

[Atcha]

I don't understand what you are trying to say but you don't seem to get my point either, which is,if the author of this blog wants to turn the act of a mad man into a significant act that betrays the state of mind of a whole country (or is it a continent), then he must use the same logic to interpret the crimes when christians are victim of muslims...so the catholic priest murdered in his Church in Turkey is victim of an act of Chritianophobia revealing the anti-Christian, anti-Westerner racist cultureb prevalent in Turkey.

There have been quite a few Europeans murdered for being Westerners in various muslim countries these last few years (including Egypt ) to let us interpret those acts in the same way

[ModernTimes1]

All of Europe should follow suit:

QUEBEC - Quebec has rejected the use of Islamic tribunals, which can be used to settle family disputes, in the province.

"The application of Sharia in Canada is part of a strategy to isolate the Muslim community, so it will submit to an archaic vision of Islam," said Fatima Houda-Pepin, the Liberal member of the legislature, as she introduced the motion.

[Juhd69]

The AUTHOR of THIS article that we are commenting on is not simply relaying the facts of a violent murder of a human(s). He is trying to blame the legitimate feeling of hostility towards Islam many in the West feel as responsible for this womans death. That's what we are commenting on.

I think what's really responsible for this persons death is the Court officer not being quick enough on the draw. The author clearly has a perverse agenda. Did Jews set fire to German embassies around the world for their medias anti-semitic cartoons? Did a prominent Rabbi call for the assassination of a novelist, and actually kill the novelists literary agent and others associated with its publication? Did a Jew disembowel a filmmaker who criticized his religions treatment of women?

Muslims without any ties to extremism should be welcomed into Europe and all societies. With the clear understanding that we hold Western values in higher esteem than the values they take with them. Furthermore our values are objectively superior and empirically lead to greater happiness among people.

This author is using moral blackmail to equate an isolated and tragic murder of a HUMAN BEING with self-imposed isolation of muslims in Europe.

[ModernTimes1]

Very eloquent. Keep posting!

[MissTrish]

The murder of Marwa Sherbini was horrific, brutal and unjustifiable. Her murderer will be punished under German law. But your attempts to drag Nazism, anti-Semitism and the long history of persecution of the Jews into current European Islamaphobia ignores the fact that Christians and Muslims have their own long, troublesome history with each other that has nothing to do with the Jewish people. Although, you might want to study up on the treatment of Jews by Muslims during the Muslim occupation of Europe.

"A hostile view of Islam began in the 8th century when Muslims expanded into the Iberian Peninsula."

Muslims didn't "expand" into the Iberian Peninsula. They invaded it by force.

"Islam was rejected as a fundamental religion and seen as a direct challenge to Christianity; Muslims were seen as heretics and their prophet a diabolical fraud."

Islam was rejected in Europe not because it was seen as a "direct challenge to Christianity" but because it was an affront against Christianity. In Christian theology, Muslims are heretics for one simple reason: they deny the divinity of Jesus. A Christian can not say that Muhammad is a prophet any more than a Muslim can say that Jesus is the Son of God. And the prophet of Islam was considered a heretic long before Muslims invaded Europe. Long before Dante wrote The Divine Comedy, the theologian St. John Damascene wrote Against Heresies.

[ModernTimes1]

Great post. Informative and historically sound. Post more.

[tyruler]

Yet even after Muslim went into the Iberian peninsula, there weren't an Inquisition that followed whereby mass murders of Christians took place.

In contrary, it gave rise to the greatest civilization of Medieval Europe: Al-Andalus whereby Christians and Jews not only were welcomed but thrived, not persecuted.

Some of the greatest Jewish philosphers and scholars lived during that 900 year period.

Time and again in history Europe has shown to be intolerant and the Muslims generally tolerant. So this is not a great exaggeration that I say Sephardic Jews (Jews living in Muslim majority lands) never suffered anything close to the oppression, genocide of their Ashkenazi brethren (European).

Time to get the facts straight, not the authors.

[MissTrish]

It seems you would like Europeans to accept your version of the Muslim invasion and occupation of Western Europe while simultaneously denying their own history under occupation.

Europe and Britain are facing a rise in the number of Muslims who are citizens of Britain and European countries who would like entire sections of a nation put aside for Muslim-only sub states ruled by Sharia law. Some Spanish Muslims are asking for the Alhambra and the Andalusia to be "returned" to their possession. They are citizens of Spain and the Alhambra and the Andalusia belong to the state. So, to whom would Spain be "returning" the Alhambra and the Andalusia? Another Muslim sub state within a state?

While it's convenient for you to use the history of Europe's persecution of Jewish communities and the Shoah to try and paint Europeans as intolerant monsters, you pervert the suffering and death of peaceful European Jews who never invaded any European country by force to deflect attention away from - and thereby refuse to take responsibility for - the violent, oppressive history of Muslim invaders in Europe.

[tyruler]

"Europe and Britain are facing a rise in the number of Muslims who are citizens of Britain and European countries who would like entire sections of a nation put aside for Muslim-only sub states ruled by Sharia law"

Yes, as citizens of their respective nations (where polls after polls, esp. after the 7/7 bombings showed, an overwhelming majority of 98% said they feel loyalty towards their nation, even after their gov't was responsible for the unjust, illegal invasion and deaths of 500,000 Iraqis and the chaos that followed) they are asking for their religious laws or Shariah to be recognized alongside the Jewish community which has access for their Talmudic laws without molestation.

As taxpaying citizens of their land, they owe nothing, but have their rights recognized.

[piul05]

You certainly spell out an awful lot of propaganda cleverly disguised as objective narrative. Let’s see...

1. The caliphate myth: There is no Muslim separatist movement in Andalucia in Spain. The regions wanting independence are Cataluña, Euskadi and Galizia.

2. The not-so-noble savage rhetoric: denying the Golden Age of Jewish culture under Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula

3. The inferior Other rhetoric: unable to deny Muslim cultural and scientific accomplishments, you choose to solely credit the Persians, ignoring Arab contribution such as the ones by Ibn al-Haytham, credited as the father of the modern scientific method), or Al-Batani, the astronomer who determined the exact length of the Earth’s year. At the same time as you reduce them to little more than a horde of invaders (obviously, a very rare occurrence in those days...)

4. The evil colluding Oriental: selectively leaving out the fact that many Muslims - Albanians, Turks, and Iranians gave shelter to persecuted Jews during WW2.


Gist of your posts; Muslims are a backward, belligerent; heartless lot.
Credibility of your posts: Zero

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2009/06/besa_world_war_ii_re-told.html

http://www.sephardicstudies.org/islam.html

The Making of Humanity, by Robert Briffault

"Al-Andalus: Porta del Paraiso - Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada", by Enrique Sordo

The books by José Ángel García de Cortázar Ruiz de Aguirre on Moorish Spain

[MissTrish]

I never said there was a separatist movement in Andalusia. I said Spanish citizens who are Muslim are asking for the return of the Alhambra and Andalusia. It doesn't matter what region of Spain they live in as Spain itself (including all it's regions) is a sovereign nation.

I'm sorry if I haven't given the Moors enough credit for their tolerance and superior culture while they were invaders. Key fact: They were invaders. I'm a U.S. citizen. The U.S. invaded Iraq. We are invaders there. We didn't "expand into" or "enter" or "move into" Iraq. We invaded it. That happened this century and I can somehow manage to refer to my own country as a country of invaders. How many centuries ago were the Moors in Spain and you still can't refer to them as invaders?

Yes, the Arab world had a more advanced understanding of science, astronomy, etc than Europeans. So did the Chinese and they were Confucian. I'm not against Islam or Muslims. I'm against people who only portray the one side of history that makes them look good.

[tyruler]

Thank you Firas for this post!!! And judging by the hostile, anti-Muslim comments of this usually rather enlightened, left-wing blog...one can only speculate what is being spewed by the right-wing hateblogs. It validates your main point perfectly: That Islamophobia is a Creeping Threat, not just in Europe but apparently in America too, with a recent Gallup poll showing a majority of Americans being "Ok having Special ID cards for the Muslim Americans." Yet another eerily similarity of pre-Holocaust dehumanization of the "other."

How acceptable the dehumanization of Muslims has become from hate radio to FauxNews to mainstream view.

That is why Mr. Al-Atraqchi, you're spot on!

[MissTrish]

People can say whatever they like to a Gallup pollster. There will be no special I.D. cards for Americans who are Muslim any more than there will be Sharia courts in the U.S. that are equal to civil law, just as Rabbinic Courts and Cannon Law Courts have no standing under U.S. civil law. It's unconstitutional.

If you're worried, please feel free to volunteer for or become a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. We'd be happy to have you.

[tyruler]

Thank you for your post. I am a huge fan of the ACLU, one of the few organizations fighting for the rights of Muslim detainess post 9/11, your organization's courage in the post Bush era was enviable.

Of course US civil law and British civil code are the abiding codes of the land and every citizen must abide by them. What I argue is Sharia'h should be recognized on equal footing as Rabbinic Courts and other form of religious courts to mediate between inter-religious issues affecting that particular community.

As if Muslims or Jews or Mormons have a practice that contravenes their law, then they should lobby to have those civil laws changed, as is their American right under the Constitution.

[Soulcatcher]

Islam is the most intolerant, xenophobic culture in the world. It's illegal in Saudi Arabia to be anything but a Muslim. Who is it that wants to destroy my country and my entire way of life, just because I'm different than they are? Oh, that's right--Muslims!
If a non-Muslim nation borders a Muslim nation, there is a war every time because they refuse to live in peace with others.
As a group they are in no position to lecture others about tolerance and friendliness. First fix Islam, or the way it's practiced, before telling others about the joy of tolerance and inclusion and peaceful relations with your neighbors. Until that happens, it's just hot air & hypocrisy.

[GDUS]

Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Hundarus, Laos, Japan etc, have borders with US. Now I know!

[ModernTimes1]

GDUS, obviously you don't.

[tyruler]

Me too. I never knew Israel shared such an intimate border with the US, so that every US Presidential candidate has to pledge their unstingting support for its security as the 51st protectorate of America.

[DrZP]

I am a Muslim. I am moderate. I am fully integrated into western society.

I find the responses on here to be sad, and re-enforce the problem the author highlighted.

Since everyone demands it, here its: Honor killing is wrong. Those groups that kill innocent people: evil and wrong. Egypts response is wrong.

Now can you condemn the evil act of murder?

Why does your condemnation of an evil act, the murder of an innocent woman, rely upon what Moderate Muslims say about issues unrelated? What does one have to do with the other? And, what if Moderate Muslims have been doing what you demand, but no-one (neither the crazies nor the so called enlightened west) is hearing us?

Moderate Muslims speak up all the time against the evil perpetrated by the few within our communities. We condemn honor killing, we condemn the murder of innocents, etc. But, you all do not pay attention. It is not news worthy. Or you forget.

[piul05]

Some of the comments made here is not dissimilar to those made by people who blame a rape victim for her ordeal - after all, if she was wearing a miniskirt, "she was asking for it".

Instead of condemning a brutal murder, they take the opportunity to have a go at the victim's faith.

It says a lot about their sense of empathy and propriety, but it says even more loudly about their capacity for reflection. If they are ever confronted with the evil that lies within their supposedly rational and reasonable speech about the Other, they won't recognize it - it's been long naturalized.

Unfortunately, it seems that, as a society, we haven't still found a way of living without René Girard's scapegoat

[tyruler]

Exactly!

[NewYorkStateofMind]

"perpetrated by the few within our communities"

oh you mean like that small community Saudi Arabia where women can't vote?

[piul05]

Muslims around the world - 1.3 billion

Saudi Arabia - a dictatorship (supported by the US, by the way) with 26.7 million people.

Percentage - Saudis represent 2% of all Muslims (and not all are enamored of the strict Wahabbi sect)

That seems to qualify to me as a few within the community.

[DrZP]

Do you think that the average person in Saudi is responsible for the policies of that nation, or are the policies enforced by the government on behalf of a religious sub-group?

Come on, you make my point for me. Saudi is a prime example of how the select few enforce their religious views upon the masses. The Saudi policy does not reflect the will of the people, or the average Muslim. It reflects the beliefs of self-proclaimed elite who arrogantly believe they have the right to dictate their views upon others.

[Inquisitr]

You saying it means absolutely nothing at all sir.

Not a single high ranking mullah, not a single Ayotollah, not a one has declared it haram. The few low ranking ones who have very rarely decide to say it in arabic.

Of course her murder is sad, of course it's wrong. But this article is full of it.

[longtimegone]

of course, of course, but, but, but, but, but but..........

[DrZP]

This is quite amusing. There are plenty of high ranking Imams who have denounced these things.

If you want to watch extremist clerics and claim they are the norm, that is your prerogative. The fact is, the crazy religious lunatics are given media coverage, while the moderate Senior ranking Imams are ignored. Why are they ignored? It does not make good TV when moderate Muslims speak against such things.

[woodwakr]

When Jesus said "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" he hit the nail on the head (sorry for the carpenter reference).

All religious people must accept secular law and society. That is what gives them the freedom to practice their beliefs unmolested, and as such these institutions must be religion-neutral. Fundamentalist Christians cannot insist our courts follow Biblical law, nor should Muslims insist on Sharia courts in the West.

Most Jews, Christians, Buddhists, etc. have accepted this: religion in private, secular law in public. But until Muslims adapt somehow to this wise arrangement, they will meet with continued suspicion and social friction.

If they can figure out a 'modus vivendi' with the modern world, the world will leave them alone and protect their rights to worship as they may. But if they continue to insist that non-Muslims conform to their beliefs.... well, let's just say it won't end happily.

[piul05]

You seem to ignore that common law (as opposed to statutory, regulatory or constitutional law) is supposed to reflect the society where it's implemented; so it's a natural development that both Halakha and Sharia Laws are used in countries such as the UK to settle civil matters.

It's hardly the end of the world, but rather the acknowledgement of greater diversity within society and the effort to adequately answer this change in demographics.

[cartman69]

You should probably learn a bit more about Sharia before you condone its application in the UK. You seem naive, at best.

[Inquisitr]

Religious laws have no place in a secular society. Freedom of religion is freedom FROM religion.

The moment you allow Sharia (the law is unnecessary sharia means islamic law), is the moment you say goodbye to a secular culture. the two cannot coexist, to imply otherwise is foolish

[tyruler]

I didn't know Jews have only accepted religion as a function of private life and not public life, that seems news to me since I have never seen bearded, orthodox Jews wearing hats and yarmulkes walking down my Jersey streets, or Sikhs with turbans at gas stations. Its only those darned Muslims with their headscarves that refuse to be like us and therefore deserve to be looked on with suspicion and scorn.

Darn I thought the Constitution allowed religious freedom only for the secular people such as the 'orthodox Jews,' 'Sikhs,' 'Amish' etc. darn those religious Muslims always asking for special treatment to freely practice their religion under our Constitution!

[piul05]

Exactly.

[ModernTimes1]

1. Orthodox Jews accepted limitations of strict religious lifestyle imposes on them. They go to their own schools which allow them to conform to their own standards. Same for Amish and Sikhs.
In Europe we can handle ( and do) Muslim women in various outfits.
it is the covering of the face that we find unacceptable and a violation of our cultural norms.
Especially when followed by shrill demands for veiled driver licensees, court appearance and school attendance.
That's where we draw the line. A little more cultural sensitivity from European Muslims is in order.

[ModernTimes1]

When majority of European Muslims will PUBLICLY support this declaration, things will improve.

The St. Petersburg Declaration
April 5, 2007
We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies.

We insist upon the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights.
We find traditions of liberty, rationality, and tolerance in the rich histories of pre-Islamic and Islamic societies.
We see no colonialism, racism, or so-called "Islamaphobia" in submitting Islamic practices to criticism or condemnation when they violate human reason or rights.

We call on the governments of the world to
* reject Sharia law, fatwa courts, clerical rule, and state-sanctioned religion in all their forms;
* eliminate practices, such as female circumcision, honor killing, forced veiling, and forced marriage, that further the oppression of women;
* protect sexual and gender minorities from persecution and violence;
* reform sectarian education that teaches intolerance and bigotry towards non-Muslims;

We demand the release of Islam from its captivity to the totalitarian ambitions of power-hungry men and the rigid strictures of orthodoxy.

We say to Muslim believers: there is a noble future for Islam as a personal faith, not a political doctrine;

and to nonbelievers: we defend your unqualified liberty to question and dissent.

These are Quotes. For full text see the official website.
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/isis

[EagleFliesInSky]

Only if this were to happen, would tensions cease. However, the fundamentalists have stated repeatedly that they will rule, the will make over the world to their beliefs and convert everyone. That is their goal which has been stated repeatedly.

This is a hideous crime perpetrated by a madman, however, perhaps this brings to light the deepening chasm between the Muslim fundamentalists and the Western mindset...­democracy. When these fundies demanded a Sharia court of law in Canada, they were pushing it to the extreme but they have not forgotten and have vowed that, given time, they would seek to do so again.

Sharia law is barbarism and sets back Western culture centuries.

[ModernTimes1]

Agreed Eagle.
Note also how carefully posters here are studiously avoiding supporting and/or commenting on this Manifesto.

[tyruler]

Wrong, as the poster below said if the religious Jews can have their religious Talmudic law in Britain and Canada...its hypocritical and wrong to deny the religious Muslims the practice of their law.

[tyruler]

ModTimes1,

Another extraneous excuse to blame the victim I see and nothing else.

[ModernTimes1]

Lesson, tyruler.
There are two subjects being discussed here,
First: the unjustifiable mur.der of an innocent woman by a criminal.
Second: The extrapolation from this act of series of inflammatory and biased statements by person unfamiliar with European culture and politics.
We've adressed the first. And now discussing the second.
End of lesson.

[truthartbeauty]

no one wants the negative influence of Islam anywhere near them. It will never do one good thing for this world. They are a menace to mankind, as all religions are.

[carolontheweb]

the 2% majority are more lethal..... and more effective.

Anybody heard about the congresswoman kidnapped by Israelis last week?

Islam is not controlling the US congress and the media of the world.

now THAT is insidious.

[fbr79]

Horrific crime, by a mentally insane person. Now...if anyone here has even been to a major European city in an area with a large Muslim population they know why there is a raising problem between the native Europeans and the Muslim populations. I mean, they act like you are in their land, their country, their rules, sorry...I came to this country and had to adapt in order to be fully accepted and integrated in this society. I think they should do the same.

[nkhogan]

While I appreciate the sentiments of your article, I think you overstate the case.

There is prejudice in Europe against Muslims, but to equate it with Nazi Germany weakens your argument. Europe is in no way close to doing to Muslims what Hitler did to Jews.

Often as well, Muslims in Europe need to think about how they aggravate sentiments against them by failing to assimilate or adapt to the host cultures in which they find themselves. It is possible to retain their cultural identity whilst making a greater effort to understand and participate in various European cultures. I think what most people object to is the absolute separationist stance that so many Muslims in Europe take towards European culture. The same way that they don't like to be judged, many of us in Europe don't like to be judged either. To call us infidels and immoral does not serve to build bridges.

[sherif]

I agree with what you say, I am a Muslim living in Europe and my wife is wearing the scarf ( her option) , I also agree that many Muslims don't adapt to the European culture and don’t try to integrate. But I also know many others who are integrating perfectly and some other who wants to integrate but the European community rejects them.
But the thing that I don’t know is WHY Muslim women with Headscarf are resented by the first look without even talking or speaking to them. I think that personal freedom states that you do whatever you like and wear whatever you like without HARMING others. So as long as I am not harming you, why do have this phobia from me? This is a belief that she have and no one can judge her on her belief. I don’t have problems with either Christians, Jews, atheists , Buddhists , gays, lesbians etc......... as long as they are not harming me. I think it is fair enough.

[sherif]

Also for information , the Muslim world is not one country as I can feel from the generalization of the comments, it is quiet big and ranges from morocco to Indonesia and we are different in habits and views and culture but we all share the same religion. So it exits that some Muslims are extremists ( which I don’t agree) and some are really moderate. It is basically like any other religion. For example a Christian English is different than a Christian Latin than a Christian African etc.. Every one practices his belief in his own way.
I don’t blame you as you only see the bad side of Muslims through the media who only show extremists.
For the murder of the Egyptian woman, I see that , the guy might be full of hate , might be instable mentally. But the fact the German media did treat the accident (which is horrific regardless of religions) in a very minor way + the police man who shot the Egyptian husband who was not the one holding the weapon, reflects a sign of ignorance and racism towards Islam.

One question ( if the woman was any other nationality - not Muslim) would the media ignore and the policeman still shoot the wrong guy?

[nkhogan]

Sherif, thank you so much for your comments. I only saw them today, a day after I made them.

I don't mean to equate all Muslims as the same as I am aware of the vast differences between say Muslims in Pakistan (of which there are also many kinds) and Muslims in Indonesia (again where there is a great diversity). Similarly, Europe is not all one culture either---great diversity between say France and the UK cultures.

And personally, I have nothing against a woman that wears a hijab and I think it's not fair for people to discriminate or treat Muslim women who wear the hijab poorly. You're absolutely correct that freedom of expression is a 'western' and hopefully more and more global value.

I am sorry this woman was murdered for wearing a hijab. It is an abhorrent crime and the man should be punished.

And of course there are lots of Muslims that are integrating in European countries. I live in the UK and am friends with many Muslims that have. But, I also live in a town (Luton) where many fundamentalist type Muslims have immigrated here from the rural villages of Pakistan. Most of these individuals don't even try to assimilate. And I do find that frustrating and alienating.

[courtb]

Do you know what is interesting? Do you know who is fighting Islamophobia in Europe? The European Jewish communities.

The British National Party tried to reach out to the Jewish community in England last year by attempting to play upon tensions between the two communities. They basically said, join us and we can fight Islam together. The Jewish response? A huge campaign (Your voice or theirs) to stop the BNP during the European elections.

The Jewish community is also standing with the German Muslim community right now: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1098207.html