When looking at the source of radicalization in my country, it is not happening in Muslim schools and Mosques. It is happening in our housing projects (low rent and income "zones) where the majority of our youth of immigrant ancestry (sub Sahara and Northern Africa) live. It is orchestrated by Salafist groups whose sole purpose is to recruit such youth by exploiting their anger and frustration with the French State while a portion of them have been involved in criminal activities which had nothing to do with religion.. Mind you that only a minority of that youth of immigrant ancestry would originally define themselves as practicing Muslims.
My main concern about Islam actually isn't the radicalism and terrorist cells, etc. That is mostly explained by what you say. The downtrodden and desperate mixed with a charismatic leader offering acceptance and radical violent ideology is what breeds it. That leader can be a radical muslim imam, or a non-religious inner city gang leader. That will always exist in society so long as we create outcasts, which is what we should be striving to minimize, and I see Islam as a major barrier to that.
My concern with Islam is not that it is inherently violent, but that it is inherently insular and authoritarian. No God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet, etc. Muslims I know in real life, not the cartoon terrorists, but the real life people, have frequently told me they are not allowed to date non-muslims, and not supposed to have non-muslim friends.
I have a vastly different experience. Mine comes from having had play mates as a child who were Muslim girls and boys. Mine comes from my father having had close Muslim friends in the 25 years he lived in Northern Africa and Sub Sahara Africa. Mine comes from having dated Muslim students when I attended my University in Nice, France, as well as having had a large circle of Muslim students as my friends. And Muslim students from various nations and different schools of thought. Mine comes from having kept in touch with some of them after over 35 years. As an aside, my grand father had a "milk brother" in Algeria as he was breast fed by a Muslim Algerian mother since my great grand mother was too ill to feed him. They were very close, up to his "milk brother" passing away in his mid 60's. Not even the bloody cultural and political clash in Algeria during the War of Independence separated them as friends.
My family always had frequent invitations by Moroccan families who demonstrated superb hospitality.I am not aware of and certainly never experienced in the Moroccan culture "Muslims who cannot have non Muslim friends". same in Senegal. Our family doctor was a Senegalese Muslim licensed physician. Highly educated and a close friend to my father. Times I would accompany my father to rural areas of Senegal, I never experienced not being welcome and befriended in those Muslim majority villages. Our "fatou" ( maid) would take me to her modest home where I played with her children and shared her family's meals. They celebrated my being their guest. Same in Morocco where the fatma would take me to run errands with her and I could find my way in the medina without any problems.
Each time I return to France I am comfortable going to the Northern African neighborhoods such as the "basse ville" or lower town in Grasse. I find all the music, tastes, flavors, scents, colors of my childhood. It is an automatic "bond" with the NA merchants when I tell them I was partially raised in Morocco and my mother was born and raised in Algeria. Even here in the US as I go to a Java Village market. Same when I lived in Napoli Italy and would go to the Arab quarters.
One thing I deeply regret is the loss of the Arabic I had learned in school and by being so immersed in the local culture.
They follow their religion and hold it above everything else, including their country. They see fellow mulsims as the ingroup and others as the outgroup.
Islam is NOT an homogeneous group at all. There are constant and persistent clashes between Muslims of different schools of thoughts. An Iranian Muslim adept of the prophet Ali is not going to view a Sunni Muslim as part of his "ingroup" at all. Surely in Canada you get enough exposure to international news to know that multiple branches of Islam clash all the time, right? But to give you an idea of the diversity within Islam and how it is deeply separated into factions and sects as even one school of thoughts will have separatist branches :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_schools_and_branches
You would have to get into more "in depth" studies though as the above gives only you a summary or overview.
I see the same in fundamentalist christains, but not to the same extreme. It is very polarized and very insular. Layer on top of that the islamophobia int he west, further re-inforcing the polarization, and I see a major problem without an easy fix.
No easy fix, indeed to have a successful politic of integration. However, isolating those groups into socio economical gutters such as what we did in France was a grave error. Giving in to anti Muslim propaganda dumping all Muslims in the same bag is another grave error. Some folks feeding on the same propaganda plagued with inflammatory misinformation while they will not check the presented claims is another grave error.
The biggest threat from Islam is not a bearded man toting an AK-47. The biggest thread from Islam is millions of muslims prostrating themselves in a herd before an imaginary Allah, not thinking for themselves, and placing an ancient book above modern thought, ethics, logic, reason, and science.
Which , to remind you of your ability to be evenhanded, is the SAME with Christianity.
And just as bad, Islam is usually evangelical, seeking to get us all to be like that.
I have never experienced in the course of my life while socializing so freely with a variety of Muslims any pressure or "evangelization" to "get me to be like that".
Add to this that Islam says little to encourage secularism or separation of church and state. I don't see your typical Canadian muslim as somebody who wants to do me physical harm, but I do see something scary.
Could you please elaborate on what you mean by " a typical Canadian muslim?" There are all types of Muslims. I could say that a "typical French Muslim" is one who has integrated into our secular public life yet will still rely on his faith in his private life. However that would leave out French Muslims who have not integrated into the French social and cultural norms.
