Radical Islam in Europe: No One to Blame But Us For too long we have celebrated the erosion of our Western values, by calling it multiculturalism. Our politicians, intellectuals and academics seem to prefer indulging in social romanticism than questioning the exploding parallel legal and social norms that are emerging in immigrant Muslim communities. Our politicians courted the radical clergy and lent their ears to their perceived grievances. Our politicians legitimized these persons -- who often turn out to be extremists posing as moderates -- as the sole representatives of all Muslim immigrants. Most of all, we failed to extend our hand of solidarity to those brave Muslim men and women who dared to defy the radical elements within their own communities. Freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry have been central to the rise of Western civilisation, bringing with them values -- such as freedom of (and from) religion, governance at the consent of the governed, and equal justice under law -- unparalleled in the human history. Instead of passing on this flame of enlightenment and freedom to the Muslim world, we have undermined it at home. The Western school systems have brought forth a generation that, by taking these gifts for granted, has failed to learn how irregular in history they are, and the heavy price that was paid by generations gone by to secure them. For years, established political parties and the mainstream media have done everything to undermine a genuine debate on the rising threat of militant Islamism in midst of European societies -- and even today continue to do so. Where our political mainstream has failed us, far-left, far-right and neo-Nazi groups have been quick to materialize. We have been squandering away the freedom the allied forces secured on the continent at the end of the Second World War at a huge human cost. If we fail to stand up for our values, nobody else will. If we wish to safeguard them, we should start by admitting what seems obvious: as Canadas Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, put it: The international jihadist movement has declared war. Our decision in the West is whether we wish to defend this freedom, or whether we wish to submit to rising Islamist intimidation even more.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 21:22:06 +0000
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