By Yasmin Alibhai Brown
...Pakistan, Afghanistan, (click here) most central Asian states, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Libya, even “liberated” Iraq, people know they must not say what they think about their rulers or their imams, not even to neighbours or friends. The only choice is to conform and live, keep your boiling thoughts locked in your own head. Imagine the psychological consequences.
When, in 2010, the Arab Spring unexpectedly arrived, Muslims rejoiced, and thought they could at last speak freely and get proper democracies. I was in the Middle East in the most optimistic months. Spring turned to winter and even harsher restrictions were imposed everywhere. Now thousands of Muslims try to flee every day, to get to places where they can earn a living, be safe, most of all be liberated from oppression. Those people on boats who turn up on Europe’s shores want what the brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly had before they blasted it all away....
...After my book Refusing the Veil came out last year, some female Muslim acquaintances organised a soiree for me to read from it and discuss its contents. These were reasonable, educated women. Here are some of the comments made:
“Why did you have to write this; who gave you permission?”
“Even to think these thoughts is wrong, and you go and publish them? If you were in a Muslim country you would be in jail.”
“If your mother was alive she would have slapped you for writing this.”
When I replied that my mother refused the veil when she was 22, the woman came back: “Then I feel sorry for you. She was the sinner and she made you one too.”
“OK I have not read the book because it will dirty my pure thoughts, but if you are a Muslim, you follow Islamic rules without question. Are you even a Muslim?”
Only two out of 14 women defended my right to write the book. But then said they could never challenge Islamic practices so openly....
Western democracy has a long history of enemies regardless of governing methods. This is nothing new, except, the only capacity available to Violent Islam is attempts at terrorism of the individual.
War with Islam within the boundaries where they exist only creates the recruitment of a greater enemy. Why expose our nations to such opportunity? The coalition is working and it is deeply felt by those of the Islamic State. The Islamic State no longer seeks to bring supporters to Syria, but, to outsource their hatred and fear to citizens within other countries recruited from their own citizens.
The future is in peril, not from the disintegration of societies that value life and freedom, but, those right wing political figures that actually do believe invading other countries and killing more innocent people is the path of victory.
I know there was another bizarre event in Great Britain. It is the security of the Homeland that has to be secured while Violent Islam destroys itself. Our countries have never demanded so much from us to maintain it's sovereignty. We can overcome this without a global war.
Killing will only beget the same. The French have set the path forward we can all understand and seek.
What may appear to be the disenfranchised Muslim is nothing more than a criminal looking for a way out by redefining the world through violence, no matter where they may appear. If free people turn their own countries into war zones the international criminals who have named themselves jihadists will have won their goal of a war without end.
