European Muslims worry about frank new Islam debate

Says who?

PARIS (Reuters) - Britain's heated debate about Islamic veils reflects a growing frustration with Muslims in Europe that risks further isolating these minorities rather than integrating them, leading European Muslim activists say.

Got that? Our frustration with their failure to integrate is causing them not to integrate. That's a stretch even for al Reuters.

The new tone in Britain, which Muslims on the continent long saw as a model of tolerance where criticising minorities was politically incorrect, marks a watershed in the way Europeans talk about Islam, they told Reuters.

Muslims response to Britains new found backbone? Play the victim card.

"There is a sense we are living in a different time," said Dilwar Hussain, head of policy research at the Islamic Foundation in Britain.

"With all the security concerns, people feel they can be more frank," Hussain said. "The reaction from Muslims is to recede further and further into a sense of victimhood."

The activists said politicians and the media blamed religion for problems that are really economic and social, such as unemployment and discrimination

Well, fellas, when you decide not to integrate but istead, try and impose your culture on the host country that took you in, the host is bound to resist. If I invite you to my house and you start to redecorate, I'm going to ask you to leave.

The moaning and wailing goes on and on.

Yazid Sabeg, France's most successful Muslim businessman, accused the media of tarring all Muslims with the terrorist brush. "Demonising Islam by confusing it with Islamism is the new opium of the people," he complained.

Muslim terrorism was the switch that turned the spot light on Islam. Prior to 9/11 I knew very little about Islam. To me it was a religion like any other and as I believed in freedom of religion, I left it alone. 9/11 made me want to learn more and fast.

Like many, what I found was deeply disturbing. Here's a religion that oppresses women, gays, Jews, suppress free speech and is intolerant of any other religion to the point of trying to eradicate them with violence. A religion so barbaric that they kill people who try and leave the religion, murder their own daughters if they think they don't dress properly or marry the "right" person, beat their wives and force their daughters to marry strangers. All these things are against Western values and this is what the West is intolerant to.

We're past the Islam is the root of terrorism theme. Islam is a barbaric religion that threatens the West's very existence, both from a terrorism stand point and a society stand point.