Islam Wants to Control the West?

The following is another segment out of an interview with Sookhdeo. EXCERPT: Are you implying that there is a sense in which Islamic communities in the West wish to take control in the West? Yes I am. Islam is based on power. It does not separate the sacred from the secular, and it has never really had an understanding of being a minority. It must exist within a majority context. The issue for the West is 'how will Islam express itself?' Will it accept that it is a minority? Will it embrace the traditions of the country in which it finds itself and be loyal to it absolutely (whilst of course, keeping aspects of its own religion and culture)? Or will it, in order to retain control of all religion and culture, set up alternative communities, which then want power for themselves in each geographical area, as well as wanting to be protected further afield by the law. I think this is the tension. No doubt you are following the position in Australia where there have been about twelve churches burned. I gather four mosques have also been burned. The question increasingly is how Muslims in the West see the countries that they live in. What are their loyalty systems? When they are a tiny minority, their response to their countries is 'we are loyal to you'. But as that minority increases and gains strength and self confidence, so it begins to change its allegiance. You can't just see it on the basis of what it is today, you have to think of what it will be five years from now. And then you have to look at who is feeding that community: what are the ideological and theological and religious influences that come from the Middle East, from Pakistan, from other countries? Where do the mullahs stand? What is their training and what are their influences? You've got to look at a number of factors. So what should our response be? I think that as Christians we have to retain what I would call a society built on Judeo-Christian values. Modernity is not all bad, it allows for pluralism to occur. I believe that we should be arguing for the continuing development of a plural society. We need to say to Muslim communities: "we cannot give way to your demands". In Britain they are now asking for legal protection for their religion and their culture. We have to say no to that, they have to accept a common citizenship based upon individual equality, and not community-religious equality. [Full Article]