To Miss England: We Enjoy Your Looks Not Your Opinion

I always find it interesting when a beauty queen thinks, that because she's beautiful, people actually give a damn about what she says about certain political issues. The first Muslim Miss England belongs to that category as well. She spoke about the radicalization process / about moderate Muslims who turn to extremism and blamed... those who criticize Islamism / Muslim terrorism, for this growing problem.

All the above being said, her words are interesting because they show a particular mindset that seems to be prevailing in the Muslim communities in the West. Therefore, some - very telling - quotes:

She said: "The attitude towards Muslims has got worse over the year. Also the Muslims' attitude to British people has got worse.

"Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway. It will take a long time for communities to start mixing in more.

"People may feel I am just a sugar coating on the situation. I am a symbol to show it's not really that bad.

But at the same time, she said, "there is this hostility" which comes "mainly from the Government".

The Prime Minister told MPs last month that moderate Muslims were not doing enough to tackle extremists in their own community.

Miss Kohistani said: "Tony Blair addressed Muslims in particular, telling them that they need to sort out the problem within. That was a huge stereotype of the Islamic community. Even the more moderate Muslims have been stereotyped negatively and feel they have to take actions to prove themselves.

Isn't it fascinating how some 'moderate Muslims' twist and turn and, in fact, put themselves on the same level with extremist Muslims while we, born Westerners, try so hard to separate the two? What does that tell us about their views?

Isn't it remarkable that, by criticizing extremist Muslims and saying that the 'Muslim community' should so something against the problem, some 'moderate Muslims' immediately feel attacked? Why is that? Nobody said that every Muslim is an extremist, instead Blair - in this particular example - clearly implied that there are many Muslim who are not extremists, who are moderate in their views. The only thing he did, is to give the 'Muslim community' in England responsibility. Blair simply told the 'Muslim community' that they should do something against the growing radicalization process themselves as well. How is that a 'generalization'? It isn't at all. It's simply pointing out that civilians have responsibilities in democracies, that one cannot expect the government to solve all the problems.

In short: criticizing extremist Muslims and giving the Muslim community responsibility in this by making it aware of the problem and asking the MC to do something against it, somehow equals saying that all Muslims are (potential) terrorists, according to this young lady and according to a lot of the complaints critics of Islamism have received and continue to receive.

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice