Before fanning the fuse, try looking at the report itself. Even if it comes from a right-leaning think tank, it's far less alarmist than the Daily Mail might suggest, and a long way removed from the frothing Lewis et al. http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/images/libimages/246.pdf Past that, it amazes me that any mention of Islam and muslims (let alone the fabled L in a W) always manages to sever the connection between Eric's wonderful mind and his typing fingers. No doubt Eric will deny this, but I'm just explaining my perception of the situation. Simon ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 8:26 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Multiculturalism "drives young Muslims to shun British values" The Daily Mail is reporting that multiculturalism is fueling fanaticism among British Muslims: The poll exposes a fracture between the attitudes of Muslims aged 16 to 24, most of whom were born in Britain, and those of their parents’ generation, who are more likely to have been immigrants… Academic Munira Mirza, lead author of the report, said: “The emergence of a strong Muslim identity in Britain is, in part, a result of multi-cultural policies implemented since the 1980s which have emphasised difference at the expense of shared national identity and divided people along ethnic, religious and cultural lines.”… While only 17 per cent of over-55s said they would prefer to live under Sharia law, that increased to 37 per cent of those aged 16 to 24… The poll found that just 19 per cent of Muslims over 55 would prefer to send their children to Islamic state schools. That increased to 37 per cent of those aged 16 to 24. If a Muslim converts to another religion, 36 per cent of 16-to-24-year-olds thought this should be punished by death, compared with 19 per cent of 55s and over. And now Bernard Lewis has weighed in at the Jerusalem Post that Muslims are "about to take over Europe": The Muslims “seem to be about to take over Europe,” Lewis said at a special briefing with the editorial staff of The Jerusalem Post. Asked what this meant for the continent’s Jews, he responded, “The outlook for the Jewish communities of Europe is dim.” Soon, he warned, the only pertinent question regarding Europe’s future would be, “Will it be an Islamized Europe or Europeanized Islam?”… Instead of fighting the threat, he elaborated, Europeans had given up. “Europeans are losing their own loyalties and their own self-confidence,” he said. “They have no respect for their own culture.” Europeans had “surrendered” on every issue with regard to Islam in a mood of “self-abasement,” “political correctness” and “multi-culturalism,” said Lewis, who was born in London to middle-class Jewish parents but has long lived in the United States… The Cold War philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which prevented the former Soviet Union and the United States from using the nuclear weapons they had targeted at each other, would not apply to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Iran, said Lewis. “For him, Mutual Assured Destruction is not a deterrent, it is an inducement,” said Lewis of Ahmadinejad. It appears Bernard Lewis agrees with recent books by Claire Berlinski and Mark Steyn and Bruce Bawer that Europe has become soft and culturally relativistic. Brian