to Sidda

Submitted by Niels (Spain), Mar 8, 2006 at 07:15

Hi Sidda. Thanks for your feedback! Indeed quite some people in Europe do share your opinion, including people very close to me, but what I would like to stress is that it is a bit too late to take a stand against Islam as a whole in the european context, while you bring up examples from other parts of the world.

I agree Islam needs to be urgently moderated, and that extremism is a widespread cancer, but my comments applied to the european situation only, the global situation is a whole different discussion. What do you think would be a solution? What would be "fighting back"? To raise the tension and form vigilante groups? To kick out all muslims?

Always this comparisons to WW2..these times are so fundamentally different!! Before WW2 the Netherlands owned Indonesia, blatantly oppressing a muslim populace many times bigger than the total dutch population! The world is such a different place today, and people´s mindsets have drastically changed. Yes, I do agree that europe´s muslims should be assimilated better, even using some coercion if needed ,but I do fundamentally disagree with you we should address to the threat with similar aggression. It´s just too late for that! It´s sad to say, but muslims in europe are the underclass, the most underprivileged, the least likely to succeed in life,to end up in jail, the most likely to be unemployed etc etc..they are discriminated and therefore they tend to radicalize.

Look at the reaction to the danish cartoons, the riots in france.. the enormous amount of frustration simmering. Should we react to that with similar aggression? No,I don´t think so. And i´m not talking about slavishly appeasing and tolerating radical imams in mosques spreading ther virulent hatred, there is another way, and hopefully Europe´s leaders are now starting to understand what is really happening here. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a very brave woman, and she has an interesting point of view, but her approach is quite counter aggressive. She does serve a purpose though by waking up people and forcing them to give priority to this challenge in Europe. She was 2nd on the list of the extremist cell that killed Van Gogh, and the rest of their list included moderate muslim policy makers..it is a thoroughly sad affair that infuriates me as well, let there be no doubt about that.

Young muslims were interviewed after the Van Gogh killing,in France after the riots, after 9-11, etc.and all the time the same frustration became apparent.

And your comments on the Quran: the problem with scriptures, and these in particular, is that they can be interpreted in many ways, and can be used for many points of view. Yes, if you take them literally they are kind of menacing for us infidels, but ,than how would you explain the religious tolerance the Ottoman Empire displayed for many centuries ,already while the inquisition in europe was burning heretics at the stakes by the thousands? just another interpretation. I am against closely following all scriptures,from a "postmodern" view that is simply not of this time..to be very honest you seem to know the Quran much better than I..
Radicalism is a pandemic that can be defeated, I´m sure of that, and not with the american "warrior mentality",that only feeds radicalization.

I might be posting on the wrong website with my comments, and I am quite sure most people here who read this tend to disagree with me, but at least it illustrates what quite some europeans think (although there´s still plenty of europeans who thoroughly hate Islam as well).

Sidda, you seem to be very well informed about world affairs. if you (or anyone else) feel like commenting, could you please suggest what europeans should do in your opinion in reaction to all this?

Believe me, we are not living in a cocoon. Europeans usually travel more outside the west than americans do. I´ve spent a month travelling Iran. I even met members of the jewish community and talked to them when visiting the shrine of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan. I´ve been on the west bank, got drunk with Israeli reservists in Tel Aviv, been in Syria ,spent 5 months in Indonesia, including the part of Sulawesi where those schoolgirls where brutally massacred and the Moluccas..but as I said, that´s a different discussion..the world is rapidly turning into a scary place, something has to be done..I am a young guy, I don´t want my children to be born in a world with darkening skies.

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