Opinion: Muslims Caught Between Rejection of Extremism and Rejection of Western Culture After 9/11

June 16, 2005

Source: Daily Times

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-6-2005_pg3_6

On June 16, 2005 the Daily Times ran an opinion piece by Miranda Husain on Muslims in Europe after 9/11. She writes, "Some Pakistani liberals have called on European Muslims to drop their ‘anti-Western’ rhetoric which tarnishes the name of Islam. However, the European Muslim reaction to 9/11 has hardly been uniform. Many have taken an aggressive stance against their national governments. But many have also fallen victim to the West’s own paranoia about militant Islam...The co-existence of these two diverse experiences has been excellently portrayed in Kenny Glenaan’s film Yasmin. The Scottish film director uses the backdrop of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre to explore the diversity of Muslim experience in post-9/11 Britain. Through the eyes of a young Muslim girl of Pakistani origin, the audience witnesses how Bin Laden’s hijacking of the Muslim faith turns her world upside down."