Integrate? Europe’s Muslims are damned if we do and damned if we don’t | Shada Islam

The new allegation in Islamophobic discourse is that even Muslims who appear well-integrated' hate the west

Reporting on the rise of anti-Muslim hostility across Europe means repeatedly hearing generalisations about Europe's 25 million Muslims. We are - all of us - too religious, easily drawn to extremism and terrorism, we live in parallel societies and Muslim women, especially those who wear the hijab, are victims of fanatical patriarchal oppression or foot soldiers in a drive to replace indigenous white Europeans.

Again and again, European governments instruct us to integrate: come in, step out of the shadows and join the sunny European mainstream. We should be less foreign", more European, adopt European values" (just which ones is left unclear, but drinking beer and eating pork seem to be among them), get an education and then - and only then - actively participate in the political, economic and social life of our host societies" which, according to Hungary's Viktor Orban, are purely Christian.

Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. She runs New Horizons project, a strategy, analysis and advisory company

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