The Real Fight for the New Europe

European nations face many challenges on the immigration front. Chief among these is the challenge of integrating communities that have tended to live at one remove from society at large. After the terror attacks in London and Madrid, there is increased concern about extremist elements.

Islamists have used the cover of multiculturalism to promote their agenda. They regularly present themselves on the media as representatives of the Muslim community. They're not. European governments and their agencies need to wake up to the reality that in empowering these radical groups they are giving them much more credibility than they warrant.

At the extreme ends, two views of the challenges facing Europe tend to predominate, and both are wide of the mark.

On the one side you have leftists who view Muslim radicals as anti-establishment and so potential allies. Left-wing activists routinely raise PC objections when any criticism is directed at Islamists, and are quick to label critics "xenophobes" and "bigots". These activists are basically enablers of an Islamist culture that promotes views which support violence, racism and sexism. Islamists represent everything the left once opposed. The alliance of political convenience that George Galloway and his ironically named Respect Party have engineered with Islamists is an example of this marriage of strange bedfellows.

On the other side you have people on the right who are manning the Gates of Vienna and sounding the alarm bells, warning of a 'war of civilizations'. Civilizations are no longer distinct in the way they once were. Cross-cultural influences attest to this. Contemporary European societies are much too complex to be co-opted in the name of an anachronistic 'call-to-arms' along these lines. These are the same pundits who cite immigrant crime statistics as a way of alerting readers to the looming threat to civilization. The doom-and-gloom scenarios they paint, mask the truth of what is actually going on and it is nowhere close to being as black-and-white as they would like us to believe.

Statistics don't support the caricature that Muslims in Europe are a monolithic mass of mosque attending conspirators. For example a mere 5% of French Muslims attend mosque on a regular basis. Similar percentages apply to other Eurozone nations also.

Of those Muslims who never darken the door of a mosque, many are secular in lifestyle. Others are backsliders who couldn't care less about the global caliphate. Many are just keen to get ahead in life and are consumed with the tough business of making a living and raising their families.

Over the past two centuries Islamic clerical power has been in decline. In Europe a unique situation has developed in that Islam has the opportunity to define a new identity in the absence of overarching clerical authority. We are seeing the emergence of new thinking on Islamic law and doctrine. Here in Canada Irshad Manji has helped to revive Islam's tradition of independent thinking known as ijtihad.

The idea that Muslims are somehow incapable of adapting to Western life is a myth created by those who base their judgments on the version of Islam presented in the media by fundamentalists. The stereotyping of Muslims that results from this, is very unhelpful because it gets in the way of positive solutions. In fact, a great many Muslims quietly adapt to the Western way of life, while preserving those aspects of Muslim practice that are important to them. In Germany the term "kultur-Muslim" (culturally Muslim) is used to describe those who are engaged in civic life and who don't advertise their religion.

Increasingly we are hearing from moderate Muslims who are determined to challenge the high profile given to fundamentalists. In the UK, a recently formed Council of former Muslims went public to call for government to stop funding and pandering to political Islam. Spokeswoman Maryam Namazie said the group provides an alternative voice to the ..."regressive, parasitical and self-appointed leaders" from organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the "oxymoronic" Islamic Human Rights Commission. Similar groups have been formed in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Predictably Islamists take a condescending view of such groups - but the point is Muslims in Europe who resent being spoken for by Islamists are starting make their voices heard. Ed Husain, the former member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and author of The Islamist, has been threatened since his book was published. He announced publicly that no threat will force him to remain silent.

This article is by no means an attempt to whitewash the dangers posed by Muslim extremism in Europe. Multiculturalism and misguided government policies have helped to create the very problems they decry. They have been feeding and sustaining Muslim radicalism. George Bush is an example of this type of misguided thinking. As the leader of the New Alliance Party in Denmark, Naser Khader rightly stated, the President is "too much of a Muslim" - more interested in protecting the interests of religion than protecting freedom of speech.

Fundamentalists are attempting to control the mosque culture. It's happening here in Canada also. They use intimidation tactics to silence moderates. In Ontario in March of this year Muslim moderates, Frazana Hassan-Shahid and Tarek Fatah, were targeted by extremists. Both had been outspoken in their criticisms of the politicization of Islam and the alleged influence of Iran and Saudi Arabia in certain Canadian mosques. A voicemail message sent to the the Muslim Canadian Congress threatened "slaughter" unless the "smearing of Islam" stops. The story got extensive coverage in the Toronto Star.

Meanwhile the press continues to draw dubious distinctions between Islam and Islamist militancy, without fully acknowledging that the religion in the West has in fact been infiltrated by fundamentalist ideology to a significant degree.

The greatest hope for Europe are those who don't think in terms of warring civilizations, but instead have a vision of a new order. A new order that includes Muslims as equal partners within the context of a democratic secular model.