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Egyptian Writer Living in Germany: Pluralistic Europe Is Surrendering to Extremist Political Islam
(MEMRI) Hamed 'Abdel-Samad, an Egyptian writer living in Germany, wrote in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Maqal on Nov. 5: "The Islamists have once again struck in Europe," raising "numerous questions regarding Europe's treatment of political Islam....Western politicians are still confounded and don't know how to destroy this monster which [they themselves] permitted to grow in the name of cultural tolerance and pluralism." "Political Islam...has infiltrated Europe and is now attempting to impose its laws on the descendants of Voltaire, Immanuel Kant and Mozart. It is trying to intimidate anyone who criticizes it and wants to dictate what the teachers say in schools, what lecturers say in the universities and what writers [write] in their articles and books." "I came to Germany 25 years ago to live here in freedom and express my opinion without having to fear for my life or risk ending it in jail. Yet after all these years...I have started to travel only in an armored vehicle. I don't dare buy bread without an escort of seven officers from the Special Forces tasked with protecting public figures, and I don't deliver a lecture without wearing a bulletproof vest. Here I am, living in prison in the heart of Europe, fearing for my life every day, because the Islamist monster reached this country [Germany]."