Most Muslims are not separatists or extremists

“Channel 4’s Dispatches survey has contributed nothing to the ongoing tense, contorted debate over identity and belonging. It is part of a currently fashionable trend to scrutinise Muslims and place every aspect of their lives under the spotlight, lest they may realize their inherent potential for extremism and violence. While they use every twist of the English language to assert their tolerance of difference, those who have succumbed to this trend can only be called arrogant, authoritarian, prejudiced and islamophobic. Why else would they regard the frequenting of a mosque, or wearing of a headscarf, as the marks of a separatist and would-be extremist?”

Soumaya Ghannoushi responds to the Dispatches documentary “What Muslims Want“.

Comment is Free, 10 August 2006