So Flanman (and KE) has it exactly right (well that is the way I interpret his post)...and it brings to the front what a moral minefield this is. A minefield which I myself cannot work through.
Muslims are often very identifiable by their garb (as were many Jews before WWII) it makes them easy targets. They are the visible spectrum of what is currently called terrorism...just as having an Irish accent was during the troubles.
A very easy target.... But that is no reason to show prejudice, we are all the same people under our clothes.
However, as a woman, I am horrified by the level of repression and indoctrination I see in many of my female muslim colleagues and their children. I see on a daily basis, a small but definite fraction of Muslim men who ignore/talk down to/show serious disrespect to women of all races/age/religious leanings. We have also had a serious HR incident regarding homophobia in this group of people. This is unacceptable. I appreciate in other countries similar things happen, it is certainly not a UK alone problem (I think we are probably more at ease than many countries)...I am fully aware of homophobia in the Southern States of the USA; the racial tension that exists all over the US, the intolerance of (any) religion by the state in China and Russia, the repression of women in India and Malaysia.
So what do we do??
I do not think it is morally correct to INSIST that people change their religious practices to enter our society, because that is fascism after all..all we can do is educated.
Education for all, but is most effective in the young, and so it will take time...
So after all this spiel, my only answer to this is education....however to do this correctly, I would get rid of ALL religious schools..RC, CoE, Jewish, Muslim...the whole lot.
We should all be in this together, enjoying each others culture, revelling in both our differences and in our similarities.
We start at the bottom, and maybe in 50 years, we will have a state in which we can all live together in peace, without fear...which would be nice
Well worded Beth.