Thursday , March 28 2024

Europe Waking Up to Islamic Illiberalism

It appears as though the European left is finally waking up to what isolated leftists like Christopher Hitchens, Orianna Fallaci and Paul Berman have been saying for some time: that many of the basic values held by Muslims throughout the world are simply at odds with those of Western civilization, especially liberal Western civilization – gay rights, women’s rights, abortion rights, multiculturalism, separation of church and state, interfaith dialogue and opposition to the death penalty.

Lorenzo Vidino & Erick Stakelbeck discuss this:

    Last month, as Muslims in the small northern Italian town of Luino prepared to celebrate the annual Islamic Eid Al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice,” they were met by some surprising opposition. The feast, which requires the slaughter of rams and lambs carried out according to Islamic tradition – meaning the animal must bleed to death after its throat is slit – sparked outrage amongst the region’s animal-rights activists. Abandoning the hushed reverence with which Europe’s Left usually regards all things Islamic, a coalition of groups gathered in front of a Luino slaughterhouse in an effort to prevent trucks loaded with animals from entering. Soon enough, the protesters – some of whom, ironically, wore Palestinian keffiyehs – were confronted by a group of angry local Muslims shouting “Allah u Akhbar!” (“God is Great!”). In the past, such blatant disregard for Muslim sensitivities would have caused the local Left to apologize profusely and enroll in cultural sensitivity training, post haste. But in today’s increasingly Islamicized Europe, many on the Left are slowly realizing that the behavior of large segments of Europe’s Muslim population represents the antithesis of their politically correct ideals and values.

    ….supporters of the ban of the Muslim veil in France and Belgium come from a variety of political parties, including some in which multiculturalism is normally considered gospel. A member of the Belgian Socialist party, Anne-Marie Lizin, declared to the British newspaper the Guardian that, “It’s not normal that in certain parts of Brussels there are more women in veils than in the streets of Algiers.”

    ….In Spain, Muslim imam Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, who wrote a 120-page book, “Women in Islam,” which taught Muslim men the “proper” way to beat their wives, was sentenced in January to fifteen months in prison for encouraging violence against women. In the book, Mustafa urged husbands not to hit their wives on sensitive parts of the body but, rather, “on hands and feet, using a light rod so that the blows don’t leave scars or bruises.” In his decision, Judge Juan Pedro Yllanes said that Mustafa’s book was “infused with a tone of obsolete machismo,” and “incompatible with the reigning social mores.” [NRO]

Though I don’t think Mustafa should have been jailed for his views – freedom of speech is much stronger here than anywhere I am aware of in Europe, I am very pleased that his work was so thoroughly denounced and rejected by Spanish society and government.

    Recently, feminist and other Leftist organizations in Europe have also taken a decisive stand against female circumcision, a gruesome practice occurring with increased frequency in the West as its third-world population grows. When a Muslim gynecologist in Florence proposed “soft” circumcisions for local Muslim women, Florence city officials — renowned for their left-wing politics and for supporting the ban of the crucifix in Italian schools – responded with a resounding “no.” One of them, Marzia Monciatti, was quoted as saying that certain traditions are at such odds with Italian values that accepting them in any form was impossible.

    The European Left’s strong support for Muslim immigrants has traditionally been twofold: first, Muslims are a religious and ethnic minority in Europe and therefore advance the Left’s multicultural agenda. Secondly, as evidenced by their joint participation in the antiwar protests of the past two years, Europe’s Left shares with many Muslim immigrants a resentment of the U.S., Israel and capitalism.

It would appear these areas of commonality are not enough to outweigh the areas of disagreement mentioned at the top. In time, I hope that the left at home and abroad realizes that the war on terror is equally a war against illiberal values and intolerance, that it is, in Berman’s words used to describe the war in Iraq, a “left-wing war of liberation.”

Vidino and Stakelbeck conclude:

    As its ever-growing Muslim population continues to alter the Old Continent’s social fabric, the European Left seems to be coming to the realization that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” adage to which it has traditionally ascribed its support of mass Muslim immigration no longer applies. For many of Europe’s Muslims, the most pressing “enemy” is not the U.S., Israel or capitalism, but the liberal, secularized way of life practiced by their “infidel” hosts.

This realization, as belated as it may be, is a very encouraging sign.

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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