When Islam Clashes With the West 

Dear Ali Sina;

I want to give you a million thanks for this site! You are doing an excellent job, and I wish your great knowledge and beautiful view on humankind could reach as many as possible. In my opinion your site is one of the most important contributions to the world peace today.

I will tell you something of my own experiences.
I am a woman from Norway, and for many years we have had an official debate in our country that regards our policy regarding immigrants and refugees. Many think it has been too liberal, and therefore caused many problems in the society. Norway is not the country in Europe that has received the most compared to its population, but we have received a large number indeed. The largest group is Pakistani, the first of them came in the early 70�ties as a result of labour immigration. Many of the foreigners have contributed in a very positive way to our society. But there are some dark and negative effects to it too, especially related to more crime. Most of the immigrants from Islamic countries (like Pakistan) find their spouse in their homeland. Due to that and our liberal immigration laws � especially the arrangement in the law that gives most of the immigrants a right of family reunion, the number of moslems has grown increasingly.

There has been written tons of articles in the media the last years of conflicts between immigrants and norwegians, and between the first generation immigrants and their children. One of the chiefs of the police crime department said in a newspaper interview some time ago, that non-western immigrants were over-represented in the statistics of violent and drug crimes, when you compare it to their total present of the population. And he said that this has started to worry the police. We have also many problems related to the children of the first generation immigrants, who are born in Norway and in many ways stands with one feet each in two totally different cultures. This youth generation are now starting to get higher education, they participate in our society in a totally different way than their parents did. The children wants to be as free as the rest of the population (nothing strange in that!), they want to be independent human beings, not ruled by the authority and dogmas their parents are used to.

This has caused some major problems the last years, and through media we have seen conflicts between parents and children that we hardly believed existed. We have seen examples were the moslem parents send their daughters to their home country, to force them to marry a cousin or some other man the family have chosen for them. Some of these girls have managed to escape from their family � before being sent away, and some of them have managed to escaped to norwegian embassies when they are in for example Pakistan or Morocco.

Many of these girls now live �undercover�. They now have to be protected from their own family, and other persons from the islamic society to avoid being harassed or even killed. Recently there was a case in Sweden, were a young woman was killed by her own father. He could not stand that she had a swedish boyfriend and that she was being �too swedish�. His shame was so big that he shot down his own daughter in cold blood. However, a few of these girls have been so brave that they have joined the public debate in various TV debates, and in interviews in the media. Some have also jeopardized their own safety so much that they brought hidden cameras and microphones with them into the mosques, and then reveled the imams TRUE opinion on forced marriage, how they should follow their parents will etc. As a result of that courage, the average norwegian (and the government also) got to see for themselves that these imams are going against norwegian laws, and that they speak with �two tongues�. One �correct� in the public, and another one, dictated by islam �when �off record�. Many people kind of knew this before these reportages, but it was nevertheless eye opening to actually get the hard-core proof of it. Especially to our politicians that for many years had thought that their �dialog� and efforts to integrate the moslems into our society � was going somewhere. But now they saw that it was built on many lies. Of course many was chocked and disappointed, but it still seems to me that the politicians haven�t been able to fully understand that it is the teaching of islam that is the main cause to these problems. In many ways our politicians are still as naive as they used to. I think this is because they know too little of what islam is really about, and I guess it also comes from the political correct thing; they don�t want to step on anyone�s toes, don�t want to hurt anybody�s feelings etc.


One of the hottest �stand-up� comedian in Norway these days are a brave woman of Pakistani origin. She also writes columns in one of the largest newspaper and one of the reason why she is so popular, is that she use humor to tear down the walls between norwegians and pakistanis. The problem is that most of the norwegians love her and laugh at their own stereotypes. She kicks both to norwegians and pakistanis, pointing out our mutual prejudices in a very funny and intelligent way. Norwegians think she is very talented, strong and intelligent � most of her countrymen detest her. She was nominated by some politicians to a cultural price, but she didn�t get it. Later it came out in the media that two politicians from the left wing and one from the labour party voted against it. Guess who they were? They were all pakistan men. One of them stated that: �she wasn�t fit to receive the price because she hated islam�. Another one stated that: �Me and many other politicians with immigrant background see her as public enemy no. 1�.


There are much more, but my point is not to bash anybody � but to try to understand what all these conflicts come from (really come from), so that we might solve them to the best for everybody. With that in mind (after years of following the public debate) and also a need to know more because of all the scary things going on in the world today; I figured out that I had to learn more about islam and muslim countries. I don�t see myself as particularly religious. I am baptized and registered in the protestant church, but has never seen myself in a religious �frame�. I have more looked into philosophy, science and psychology, with an open � kind of �spiritual mind�. Anyway, as I didn�t know much about islam, I started to borrow books at the library and searched the internet. I found various things, but didn�t quite found what I was looking for until I found this site. It was either too extreme in one way or another, or it didn�t have much information and facts. Then I found this site, and all the pices in the puzzle fell right in for me.

I must say it scared the h�out of me, when I saw that the quaran and islam is founded on so much hate and destruction. I recall that when I was younger and I saw some angry moslems from Iran/Iraq etc. on the television news � I saw their facial expressions; filled with hate and anger shouting out in a language I didn�t understand. I always wondered were all this hate come from. I was too young to know that it come from islam. Then the years went by, and I started to see signs of the same things happening here in the western countries. For a couple a years ago I thought that this Mohammed must have been completely insane � a real psychopath, and that his followers were brainwashed and manipulated in some way. Little did I know then that that�s exactly the case! I have asked myself over and over again questions like; Why does it seems that you can�t joke with a moslem? Why do they go so totally in self-defense when confronted with facts in TV debates related to that the politicians want to start to demand some more co-operation with them? Why is it that I almost feel that I can�t really trust them? Why are the moslems following this destructive way, even when living in free, democratic countries for years? Why aren�t they embracing more of our fine values, like freedom for everyone � instead it seems that we shall always adjust to them, and not the other way around.

I have joined some debate groups in some newspaper, and this is some of the most debated topics. I see that slowly more and more people are beginning to understand that it is the ideology of islam that is the main source of these problems. However, it is very frustrating to try and explain this to both the muslims � and many from the left side. I will tell you an example from one of the board. A moslem wrote something like this;
�There is so much ignorance here about the quran. The quran means tolerance� Visit my site�.so and so..(a pro islamic site). I asked this guy one question: Do you think the two Iraqis in the southern part of Norway ( a recent case in the media), agree with you that the quran means tolerance? They now have to live with a direct alarm to the police attached to them, and they are scared to death after being threatened and beaten up by their countrymen. Their �sin�? They had left islam and become christians. I newer got an answer from this guy, not that I expected it � but still it is so frustrating and sad that they won�t realize the truth about the doctrines they are following. I have now seen so much evidence that there is no shadow of a doubt what islam is really about. But what about those who close their eyes and ears? Especially the political correct ones. It is remarkable how many of these seems to belong to the left side of the politics. And that seems so ironic, because they have always fought very strong for the people�s freedom, for equality between the sexes and so on.

I can also tell you that often if we say critical things and ask critical questions about islam in a public board etc., many left-wingers - calls you all sort of ugly things. Like racist, nazis and so on. As a consequence, many people don�t say what they mean, because they are afraid to be labeled something they certainly don�t deserve. Anyhow, we are many now that won�t give in for this, it�s to absurd to be taken seriously and it is far more important that this things come out in the light. I mean it totally falls on it�s own lack of logic. For example; if you say that the nazism were a disgusting, brutal ideology � formed by a mad man that caused the death of millions and tired up the whole world peace, everybody agree with you. If you say that it is exactly the same thing with islam today, many people get shocked and won�t believe you! They say that you are afraid of �the unknown�, you are ignorant and you can�t label a whole group of people like that. I try to explain to them that it is not the moslems  I am against. It is their awful �religion� that causes so much pain around the globe. But, after all I am optimistic, especially after finding this site were I see that finally moslems themselves are starting to see the truth about islam, and then leaving it. I see it in the other boards I participate in to, that more and more people starting to understand what it is really about. And that gives me hope! Because knowing the source of it, one can do something about it to. It�s like a doctor can�t cure an illness effectively without having a diagnose.

I hope that moslems can see that they have been, and are victims of an evil cult, that has provoked so much pain and sorrow for so many (maybe mostly to themselves), for too many years. And that when they shock this madness off, they will find true peace and harmony. Both inside themselves and towards other humans.

I�ll end it here by wishing you all the best, and keep up the good and very important job you are doing here! 

Yours sincerely,
Maria