Hatred and fear of Muslims has moved from the margins to the mainstream
I'm not afraid of ordinary Muslims. I am afraid of Islamists.
As I said upthread, these Islamists tell everyone, loudly, that they are Muslims: true Muslims. Some Muslims believe them and flock to the Caliphate. If these Muslims believe that Islamism is a true - the only true - interpretation of their religion, it's no wonder that Sam in the street wonders if they're right.
Add to that the Mail's regular Anti-Muslim Ten Minutes Hate, (and the discovery of various cover-ups in other parts of the press) and bingo... Sam starts voting UKIP. Do we let UKIP and the far right control this debate? Or do we (as one or two posters seem to have said) not have it at all?
Or do we try and talk about it? (And get called racists and Neo-Nazis?)
This is actually what Isis want, tension between Muslims and everyone else.
emily, I think you're probably correct here. The 'liberal' West turns against Muslims, Muslims become radicalised, and then - who knows? But if we don't deal with these issues NOW, if we pussyfoot around things like Cologne, if the press covers up wrong-doing by migrants, the full story will come out and be infinitely more damaging to the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims. If these sorts of assaults become more common, because governments don't report them or quell them, you can guarantee that parties like Pegida will go from strength to strength.
I'm sure you're going to come back and tell me that Cologne had nothing to do with the culture of North Africa and that life is just peachy for women in those countries. But it did, and life isn't. Or tell me that what happens at the Oktoberfest is just bad (so far as I can tell, it was nowhere near).
Yes, I agree that we need to tackle all forms of violence against women. Cologne is a new form, not previously seen in Europe. We need to tackle it, and debate it, because denying it will do nobody any good at all.
Except the real Fascists: Neo-Nazis. And ISIS.