1- I was watching a movie 'Before the Rain'. The movie shows the unending cycle of love and violence in the Macedonian region. There is a bitter division of orthodox christian and Albanians and it gives the hint of civil war like situation. I started thinking about root causes of this hate. West stick to the theory of "Clash of civilization". This clash is bound to happen due to rapid globalization that brings people together. Prejudice of superiority and purity are shattered by scholars. Extremists taking in the refuge of nationalism return into cocoon with mythical glorious past theories of the region.
European nation are taken aback Islamophobia. In Switzerland, it’s minarets. In France, it’s the veil, the burqa and the beard. As they fear that the population explosion of Muslims will disturb the social fabric of their society. What we are witnessing today is a shift from a Muslim to an Islamist identity. The religious self for individual Muslims is being shifted from the private to the public realm. Christopher Caldwell, a journalist who has been reporting on Muslims in Europe for over a decade goes on to voice a fundamental European concern: "It was not just that young Muslims were assimilating too slowly into European culture as the generations passed, it was that they were dis-assimilating."Separation of religion from state is a distinct symbol of European enlightenment and culture, while Islam stands for joint duo politics and religion. Secularism is not the same as atheism. Secularism means respect for all faiths. While the fear is genuine due to history of Muslim population showing more loyalty to Islam than their nation in the secular state. At the same time, however, large numbers of Europeans even in the most secular countries still identify themselves as "Christian," pointing to an implicit, diffused, and submerged Christian cultural identity.
Islam is falling in the hands of pseudo theological mullahs who opposes any form of free speech as heresy. And, with Danish Cartoon controversy and Murder of Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh had given hardliners enough material to speak against Islam.
Oliver Ray examined in his essay about Islam in Europe: "It is a mistake to think that religious and political radicalism among European Muslims is a mere import from the cultures and conflicts of the Middle East. It is above all a consequence of the globalization and Westernization of Islam."
Free speech is a fundamental human right and a central tenet to any form of government. With the latest in a series of incidents in Europe, involving the clash of the idea of freedom of expression with the idea of blasphemy of Islam, I vouch for the expression 'Free speech' irrespective of religion and state principles.
Read a genuine line that impresses me: To Credit Islam with Algebra, Hinduism with Shoonya, Christianity with the Copernican revolution, is like crediting the Czar with the Bolshevik revolution.
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