Muslim culture is different

Submitted by Octavio Johanson (Italy), Apr 27, 2006 at 17:11

Once again, the Pasha Bordello controversy proves that Samuel Huntington was right. If he was not right, then he went very close to the truth. Now, somebody wants to cover a model's face with a burka, as if it was a normal request. Offences against Muslims and the Koran are identified all over the place, and now it is Germany's turn.

One day we will find out that a western woman showing her legs in a western country is an offence against the Koran. Samuel Huntington states the situation in very clear terms about 15 years ago. Political correctness has often caused us to chose our words carefully and avoid Samuel Huntington's hyperbole on the "clash of civilisations". This expression is seen as too extreme.

Let me rephrase it in uncontroversial terms. Muslim culture is different. It is so far apart from our own that the differences can hardly be reconciled. Even the most extreme Catholic, Protestant or Jew would not get to that degree of radicalism. We have cultivated Muslim radicalism in our midst, in the western world. Now we are facing the situation described by Samuel Huntington. Rhetoric and nice words are not enough to settle 1,400 years of cultural and historic differences between Muslims and the rest of us. Political correctness is not enough to reconcile the differences on the way we see Jews and homosexuals: some Muslims would like to kill all of these people. The way we see sexuality is different; our work ethic is different, out holidays are different, and our view of the world is radically different. Nevertheless, people insist that these are Islamophobic prejudices. If only. Well, I hope I am wrong. I really do. But we are going to regret our course of action.

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