15 Comments
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Matthew Holt's avatar

Fantastic article on a very complex topic. But it appears that in Europe for sure the reverse assimilation of Muslims is getting worse. Which tracks with your work on Israel & my lived experience in the US. Simply put, religion is bad and fundamentalism is terrible. And we have Israeli settlers, the IRCG and Pete Hegseth calling the tune--all fundamentalists who aspire to 11th century ideals not 21st century ones

Jennifer Akgul's avatar

Tough topic but good for you for trying to look into it! Moderation in all things - I say myself !

pete gee's avatar

Your figures represent a frightening validation of the general feeling in the West of the real and present danger of increasingly radicalised and intolerant young Muslims.

The sheer hypocrisy and misogyny embedded in Sharia further argues that freedom of religion needs to be replaced by a sterner freedom FROM.

And of course should apply to all crazed voodoo.

That, in many cases and countries, it really is the majority of young Muslims who are embracing an aberrant position is more worrying than the " oh, it's only a minority" stance.

And it takes only one throat cutter or a handful in a few airlines to panic entire nations.

Matthew Holt's avatar

Or one defense secretary thinking he's on an 11th century crusade....

Alex Potts's avatar

So, I think the thing that surprises me most is that on all of those charts showing a significant proportion of British Muslims with extremely conservative beliefs, there's also a surprisingly (and concerningly) sizeable chunk of non-Muslims who agree with them!

Any idea who these people are?

Chris's avatar

The fact that only 4% of islamic people think that al-Quaeda caused 9/11 puts every other statistic into doubt. It means people are willing to believe anything and say anything.

Tomas Pueyo's avatar

As mentioned in the article, this is in the UK, and corresponds to the Pakistani average (Pakistanis account for a majority of UK Muslims)

Muath's avatar

As a Muslim myself, I really don’t like the use of the word “encouraging” when talking about a rescission in traditional Islamic beliefs.

I may by biased here, but I think what democracy really stands for is not total integration into the hosting country’s moral values and/or religion, I think it stands for unity , and acceptance of other people. (Excuse my English)

Muath's avatar

If we are democrats , we should be united towards working for betterment if the whole society, regardless of what our religious, political, or moral views are.

We should all be working together as proud citizens of our countries, whether we are Muslim fundamentalists , born again christians , jews or even atheists.

You shouldn’t “despise the winner” you should just learn to live with it and suck it up for the sake of your country.

Tomas Pueyo's avatar

Thanks for sharing. I agree.

I'm not sure what part of the article this comment should be appended to. Are you agreeing? Disagreeing? Adding to some point?

Muath's avatar
1hEdited

Nah I just be talking really , you’re article is splendid and I think you captured the whole topic , I was just upset of the use of the word “encouraging”.

Tomas Pueyo's avatar

Ah, what's encouraging is that US Muslims integrate better and their views are less radical / Islamist than those in Europe

Muath's avatar

Yeah that’s fair , I interpreted like this:”Muslims’s religious beliefs are changing and that’s encouraging”.

Cheers to you man.

Chris's avatar

Democracy does not stand for unity. It is at the very heart of political disunity. It is the battle, the competition between different opinions.

It is the willing and unforced agreement to follow the wishes of the winning party, however much you dislike or despise the winner.

If we are totally unified, then we don't need democracy.

Tomas Pueyo's avatar

You need it to surface the priorities of the people