I have just finished reading the Centre for Social Cohesion's latest report, Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech Within Europe's Muslim Communities. For anyone who cares about our basic freedoms and human rights, regardless of religion, the report's findings are deeply alarming. The report details the experiences of 27 European writers, activists, politicians, artists and journalists, all of Muslim background, who have suffered threats, intimidation, harassment and actual physical attack as a result of extremist reaction to opinions they have expressed. The cases come from throughout the continent - countries as diverse as Norway, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Some have been in such danger that they have had to have police protection - and many others ought to have had similar protection but have been denied it. A few cases, such as that of Samira Munir, a Pakistan-born women's rights activist and politician in Norway, have resulted in death - although often unsolved or shrouded in mystery. What is especially powerful about the report is that it documents cases of Muslim background critics of aspects of Islam and Islamism. Some of these critics remain Muslims, but seek reform, while others have chosen to leave Islam and face the consequences. Either way, none of them are Western non-Muslims - all are Muslim-background activists with first hand experience of some of the more oppressive aspects of parts of Islam.
The report brings out not only the threats faced by Muslim and ex-Muslim critics of radical Islam and Islamism, but the complicity of parts of the uber-politically correct liberal elite in Europe. For example, in the case of Kadra Noor, a Somali-born Norwegian activist and investigative reporter, left-wing Norwegian anthropologists opposed her campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), arguing that to criticise FGM is 'cultural imperialism'. They went on to compare FGM to ear-piercing! She was later beaten unconscious outside a pub in Oslo.
A common charge thrown at people who criticise some of the ideas and values propagated by some parts (note the emphasis - by no means all) of Islam is the accusation of racism. Iranian-born activist Maryam Namazie, who founded the Council of Ex-Muslims in Britain, has a clear response to those charges. She wrote in The New Statesman in February 2008:
Human beings are worthy of the highest respect, but not all opinions and beliefs are worthy of respect and tolerance. There are some who believe in fascism, white supremacy, and the inferiority of women. Must they be respected? I've always said that criticising Islam and its political movement is not racism in any way, shape or form. You cannot be racist against a belief or idea, no matter how much that criticism may cause offence.
Of course we should have seen all this coming twenty years ago, when Salman Rushdie faced a fatwa from Ayatollah Khomeini for his book The Satanic Verses. Rushdie himself says that episode was "a kind of prologue" and now "we're in the main event" as far as radical, militant Islam and Islamism in Europe are concerned. We need to wake up to the challenge to our freedoms. Of course we need to be sensitive and sensible - we must avoid sweeping generalisations about Islam and Muslims, we must do all we can to avoid generating hysteria and 'Islamophobia', and we must respect Muslims as people. We must also keep in mind that Islam is by no means monolithic - Muslims have a variety of interpretations, and many choose to live their lives in a peaceful, law-abiding, generous way consistent with liberal values of human rights and freedom. I have a good number of Muslim friends from Burma, who are among the warmest and most peaceful, hospitable and generous-spirited people I know - and they face severe persecution and discrimination in their own land. But there are parts of the Islamic world where liberal, democratic values are viewed with contempt, and many others where people, while not directly engaging in acts of violence, subscribe to views which are shockingly intolerant. It is those views - as distinct from the people - which we need to oppose and challenge. We must preserve our freedom of speech to do that. Christianity comes in for daily abuse, criticism, humour and insult - be it in the form of intellectual critique and scrutiny by the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, or in more light-hearted ways in comedy and general conversation. Islam and Islamism, as ideas, should be treated no differently. That is why the UN resolution Combating Defamation of Religions, introduced by the Organisation of Islamic Conference, is so wrong and should be fought. As the Dutch deputy prime minister Wouter Bos is quoted as saying in the report, "in a democracy, we do not recognise the right not to be insulted." Let that be our new year's resolution in 2009.
