Quote Originally Posted by World's End Stella View Post
True, yet the overwhelming majority of Muslims still lead their lives and consider themselves good Muslims while ignoring the parts to which you refer, so that gives us hope. An Islamic reformation is too much to ask for in our lifetime, Burney, but the very least we can expect is for the Muslim community leaders, imams etc to emphasize the parts of Islam which are consistent with modern life in Britain and to the extent that it is possible, ostracise the 70 year old men who grew up in the nether regions of Pakistan (as an example) and have far too much sympathy for the nutters.

More women and young people being active leaders within their communities is the key, I think. Less chaps in robes and silly hats with stupid beards.
That rather ignores the fact that a lot of the older generation of muslims who came here back in the 60s were rather more integration-minded than younger generations, many of whom have embraced a more fundamentalist outlook. Progress is far from linear or certain in that respect.

A lot of the problem lies in our idea that we can separate out culture from religion and treat them as two separate things. I really don't believe it's that simple. Religion - particularly a religion like Islam - shapes culture and it becomes well-nigh impossible to address a lot of these problems without addressing that fact.