Euro-Islam

It's not only the cartoons that are making Europe the "object of hate of the Muslim world", writes Mariam Lau. It's also Europe's growing self-confidence. "The greatest threat to the region's despotic regimes is posed by what is trickling into their countries with increasing persistence in the guise of 'Euro-Islam': the conviction that Islam and democracy are not irreconcilable, that the sharia and the Koran remain separate worlds, that women in posession of driving licenses and ballot papers do not represent the downfall of the Muslim world and that the poor educational standards and backwards economies of many Muslim countries are just as great a source of shame to the Ummas as torture, corruption, and superstition. And although our third-world friends refuse to believe it: what those who indulge in Western self-hatred like to describe as cultural imperialism – namely individual freedom, personal integrity and political legitimation – is becoming standard for a growing number of Muslims."

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