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What the West Offers Islam

(New York Post) Amir Taheri - In Paris a rich diversity of brands of Islam exist side by side in freedom and security. These include sects banned in almost all Muslim nations, where their members are persecuted, imprisoned, and sometimes executed as "deviants." In this French haven of peace, you can live and practice your Islam the way you understand it - a gift rarely available in any officially Islamic country. Such a gift exists because French society keeps the private space distinct from the public one. Yet the idea of religion as a private affair is abhorrent to most Muslims, for Islam aims to rule every single aspect of individual and collective life. Groups that claim to represent Muslims never use the adjective "French." Rather, they call themselves an Association of Muslims in France or Council of Muslims of France. You are a Muslim who happens to live in France, never a Frenchman who happens to be a Muslim. The West is the only place where all Muslim schools freely propagate their ideas and maintain their places of worship and seminaries without restriction. In Muslim-majority countries, the dominant school of Islam bans all other schools.
2005-11-22 00:00:00
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