As the people of Europe begin to vocally criticize the misogyny and violence in many Islamic communities, European Muslim leaders are predictably beginning to seethe about “intolerance:” European Muslims worry about frank new Islam debate.

PARIS (Reuters) - Britain’s heated debate about Islamic veils reflects a growing frustration with Muslims in Europe that risks further isolating these minorities rather than integrating them, leading European Muslim activists say.

The new tone in Britain, which Muslims on the continent long saw as a model of tolerance where criticising minorities was politically incorrect, marks a watershed in the way Europeans talk about Islam, they told Reuters. Islamist radicalism, ethnic segregation and clashes of values must be discussed openly, they agreed, but the increasingly polarised debate squeezes out moderates on both sides.

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sparked off the British debate this month by saying the full facial veils some Muslim women wear hindered integration. Some Muslim leaders called his remarks offensive and accused him of whipping up Islamophobia.

“Intolerance is growing in Europe,” said Dalil Boubakeur, president of France’s Muslim Council, who saw the new mood as a response to security fears and the radicalisation of a small minority of Muslims who do not accept European values.

“There is a sense we are living in a different time,” said Dilwar Hussain, head of policy research at the Islamic Foundation in Britain. “With all the security concerns, people feel they can be more frank,” Hussain said. “The reaction from Muslims is to recede further and further into a sense of victimhood.”

The activists said politicians and the media blamed religion for problems that are really economic and social, such as unemployment and discrimination.

“Before, we were just immigrants from Turkey or Morocco or other places, but then they found something to combine us,” said Famile Arslan from the Dutch group Islam and Citizenship. “All immigrant problems have been Islamised. All Muslims have been criminalised,” she said. …

The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh and the bombings in Madrid and London have deepened concerns about whether Europe’s 15 million Muslims all accept European values.

“Europeans were stunned to see that even people who were quite integrated could do these things,” Boubakeur said.

Ali Kizilkaya, head of Germany’s Muslim Council, said Muslims were now seen “as a kind of security problem”.

Yazid Sabeg, France’s most successful Muslim businessman, accused the media of tarring all Muslims with the terrorist brush. “Demonising Islam by confusing it with Islamism is the new opium of the people,” he complained.

And at the end of this incredibly slanted piece from al-Reuters, the one bright spot for European Muslims: they did win the cartoon jihad.

One Danish Muslim leader said the uproar over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad there earlier this year had helped calm tensions by promoting a dialogue.

“The cartoon crisis did function as a wake-up call for both Danish politicians and Muslim leaders,” said Yildiz Akdogan, spokeswoman for the Democratic Muslims group.

When more such cartoons surfaced this month, the government promptly denounced them and Muslim leaders avoided exploiting the issue, she said. “The final outcome is good.”