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| India-Pakistan |
| Muslim alienation in the West |
| 2008-08-01 |
| By Irfan Husain Questions about identity and loyalty among the Muslims who have chosen to live in the West have been recurring themes since 9/11. As the number of suicide bombings and attempted attacks has mounted, so too has suspicion about the large and growing population of immigrants from the Muslim world. Especially among the working class and right-wing sections of the population, Muslims living in their midst are now seen as a fifth column, ready to wreak mayhem at the slightest pretext. As the only Muslim many of my English friends know socially, I often find myself being addressed as a sort of spokesman for the Islamic world, a role I do not exactly relish. This happens more often late in the evening when several drinks have dissolved notions of political correctness. "Why," I am asked earnestly. "Do Muslims come here if they hate our laws and lifestyle? Why do the ones living here not return to where they came from if they are not willing to make any attempt to get along with the rest of us? And why do they all stick together all the time?"Patiently, I explain that immigrants, whether Muslim or not, are forced to leave their homes due to political or economic conditions, so it is often not really a matter of choice. Many of them are from a conservative background, and are shocked by the easygoing attitudes and personal choices that have evolved in the West. As to Muslims who have been born and brought up in Europe, they find themselves caught between two cultures: exposed to a traditional home environment, they are expected to conform to a Western lifestyle at school and at work. This produces an identity crisis that leads some of them to choose extremism to resolve and simplify these dilemmas. In short, I mouth a bunch of clichés without being sure how many of them are really valid. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #7 No ed, but they were treated like dogs (No DOgs or Irish Allowed), and accused of being traitors (loyal to the pope, etc). And unlike the Irish and Italians, the Mulsim *DO* cut off heads, "honor kill", etc. So what are the Muslims to do? Prove the critics wrong - be peaceful, publicly and loudly criticise those elements of that reinforce stereotypes, flush out the radicals. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-08-01 18:51 |
| #6 I don't remember the Irish and Italians being sermonized that they will cut off the heads of the infidel hosts and rape their daughters. Maybe I slept through that sermon. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-08-01 15:25 |
| #5 Welcome to what Catholic Irish and Italian faced during their first generation of immigration here in the US. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-08-01 15:20 |
| #4 "Patiently, I explain that immigrants, whether Muslim or not, are forced to leave their homes due to political or economic conditions, so it is often not really a matter of choice." The unspoken comment is elsewhere in the Muslim world doesn't want them and are actually just as bad a stink-holes as where they came from. Still they could have gone to another nation, I just don't buy this. Many chose the West because of the free cash and prizes. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-08-01 11:33 |
| #3 Wait till the pogroms start. Happened a lot to another religious group often characterized as self isolating, secretive, keeping to the old ways, some of who's tenets [which did not include advocating conversion by the figurative/literal sword or butchering whole train loads of the locals] rankled the general population. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-08-01 11:03 |
| #2 In short, I mouth a bunch of clichés without being sure how many of them are really valid. Well at least the guys honest enough to admit it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-08-01 10:43 |
| #1 ... it is especially disturbing as it focuses on university students, a group that had earlier been assumed to be less prone to extremism. Assumed by anyone who imagines the universities are not a hotbed for every radicalizing stupidity known to man. Why should the Muslims be left out? |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2008-08-01 10:19 |