The blame game

Costello's twilight zone did not describe the lifestyle of this young English bank clerk. The smile of her published photo elegantly represented a woman at peace with her Islamic heritage and her British nationality.

For Shahara Islam, 21, having the surname and religion of Islam did not diminish her Britishness. Indeed, her family described her as being "an East Ender, Londoner and British, but above all a true Muslim and proud to be so".

She represented a modern multicultural success story - the daughter of migrant parents whose religious and cultural heritage she shared. At the same time, she was a thoroughly modern woman on her way to work.

She was a typical victim of terrorism. Presidents and prime ministers speak of the "war against Islamist terror" in her name. Columnists and talkback hosts rally against "Islamic terrorists" in her name. Yet they keep forgetting what her name is.

In neo-conservative circles, it has become fashionable to attribute extremist violence and terror to the heritage of the young British bank clerk. This has become apparent in a number of neo-conservative publications, including the New Zealand-based magazine Investigate.

This month, the allegedly liberal Centre for Independent Studies hosts Mark Steyn as part of its "Big Ideas Forum". Steyn's most consistent big idea involves blaming Muslim cultures for virtually all the ills of the world.

Writing in the UK Sunday Telegraph (and reproduced in Rupert Murdoch's The Australian), Steyn says: "These days, whenever something goofy turns up on the news, chances are it involves a fellow called Mohammed."

Two recent government appointees to the government-funded ABC Board have made similar claims about the existence of a monolithic Muslim "culture", one even going so far as to suggest this culture encourages its male proponents to sexually assault white women.

On June 26, ex-Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch spoke in terms of a monolithic Muslim culture which allegedly placed religion above nationalist sentiment. Murdoch's chilling words were: "You have to be careful about Muslims who have a very strong, in many ways a fine, but very strong religion which supercedes (sic) any sense of nationalism wherever they go."

His sentiments have been mirrored in the editorial line taken by virtually all his newspapers whose op-ed pages are frequently used to promote a European monolithic counter-culture as an alternative to the multicultural status quo.

With such powerful media and government forces busy edu-hating their religious heritage, how do the majority of moderate home-grown Muslims avoid being marginalised? A key plank of the solution is for young home-grown Muslims to take over peak Muslim bodies claiming to represent them.

When ordinary citizens know the facts about their Muslim neighbours, when Islam is no longer seen as alien, the hysteria will hopefully end. But when Muslims living in the West allow themselves to become marginalised in cultural cocoons, and when they become second-class citizens, groups like al-Qaida will find recruitment much easier.