Islam

European liberals never ask uncomfortable questions about immigration

Was the 2015 European migration crisis followed by a surge in sex crime and sexual harassment? It’s a delicate question; one that many people would prefer not to be asked, much less answered.

But as a result of this collective reticence, discussion surrounding this issue has often been isolated to two extremes. On the one hand, it has been dominated by the populist Right. In response to the Cologne sexual assaults of New Year’s Eve 2015-16, for example, German supporters of Alternative für Deutschland rioted and called for mass deportations. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the response of many European liberals and progressives has been that of the three wise monkeys: “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”

It’s time to face head-on the role of Islamism in modern societies.

The “historical reality” of blasphemy restrictions exists “across all schools of mainstream law, Sunni and Shia,” admitted leading hardline Pakistani-American Islamist cleric Yasir Qadhi during a March 11 webinar, “The Question of Blasphemy in Islam: Between the Sacred and the Profane.” Notwithstanding some politically correct myths, he and his fellow panelists offered some refreshingly critical thinking on the harsh realities surrounding the often deadly issue of blasphemy against Islam while exposing the limits of Qadhi’s self-proclaimed reformism.

Too many jihadis treat rehabilitation with contempt

Can terrorists be “deprogrammed”? It is one of the most daunting and complex questions facing European states today, and one of the most urgent. Just a few years ago, over 40,000 people from 80 different countries were attracted to Islamic State’s expanding tyranny in Iraq and Syria. Today, as the “Caliphate” they dreamed would last until the end times lies in rubble, close to 2,000 have returned to Europe, including some 450 to Britain.

AFTER the end of the First World War, Churchill said: ‘The whole map of Europe has been changed . . . but as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again.’

As we start to leave the societal deep freeze of the past year, we could be forgiven for thinking something similar about the equally relentless sectarian troubles between the Western world and the large – and rapidly growing – Muslim minorities within it.