The perception of collective guilt partially comes from the fact that many of the more extreme elements are not dealt with..
Any true appraisal of the assertions and narratives of the anti Muslim bigots side by side with the assertions and narratives not just of extremists like Anjum Chaudhry, but the party line of substantial theological-ideological identity-politics emanating from within Islam will show an intimate mirroring. As I said earlier:
"Mixed in the middle of this is something problematic, however; the primary, generative source of this idea is from within the realm of Islam - and it generates and is asserted in the primary instance by ummah identity politics, Islamism, literalist orthodox theology. Those that Haroon Siddique describes are secondary perpetuators of these ideas."
Without acknowleging and acting on this, you are not addressing the issue at all.
Here is a post I wrote earlier when the subject of the 'Eurabia' demographics line came up.
The thing is, we don't know how demographics are going to change in the future. Birth rates amongst Muslims might fall, birth rates amongst non Muslims might rise. Immigration from Islamic countries might increase or decrease. Chain migration through cousin marriage between Mirpur in Pakistan and Muslim communities in the UK might waver, decrease, or stay the same. Same with chain migration between Sylhet in Bangladesh and the UK. Other Muslim communities like the Somalians or the Turkish may change in size. Religiosity may decrease, apostacy might increase. The truth is, there are so many factors that are at play here, that it is almost impossible to make a definite judgment on such matters.
However, one thing that is true is this. Its not just 'Eurabia' touting right-wingers who are to blame for this projection. It has been a direct result of Islamic Ummah Identity Politics, fostered by a mistaken, rigid form of 'multiculturalism', that has given rise to these fears.
Ever since the Rushdie affair, various ideologues, bolstered by the Jamat-e-Islami and Muslim Brotherhood, have purposefully created schisms in the fabric of UK life projecting their separatist ideas, and spoken in terms that basically are identical to the memes expressed by the Eurabia crowd.
Islamic Identity Politics has been the most disastrous thing to happen to British Muslims.
It feeds separatism. It drives a wedge between them and everyone else in British society. It hungers and perpetuates an hysterical grievance and victimhood culture. It is selfish. It knows no other mode than to raise the volume of itself, giving the impression of an embattled and aggressive mission to seek special priveliges for Muslims and Islam, in perpetual hostility to non Muslims, and non Muslim society.
It asserts that Muslims are a monolithic singular block - something that the 'Eurabia' types also assert.
How can anyone miss this? Islamic Ummah Identity Politics is exactly what asserts that in the first case, and it does so perpetually and incessantly. In the UK, large parts of cities and towns are almost exclusively Muslim. London, Birmingham, Bradford, all have areas that are effectively, completely Islamic enclaves. Now it probably is the case that these numbers demographically don't amount to what the 'Eurabia' folks say is happening. But combined with all these other factors, it can be seen to give the impression that what is being said has some merit.
The truth is, organised religious identity politics concurs with 'Eurabia' projections. It cajoles, coerces, and pressures Muslims and non Muslims into viewing Muslims as one undifferentiated mass who have narrow identities and narrow objectives. It does project an idea of Islamic power within secular liberal democracies, territorial ideas of the 'numbers game' that can be used to make demands about various things in this religious identity politics game. This is what the Eurabia folks say - and it is generated from within Muslim Identity Politics in the UK. How can you talk about this subject, without acknowledging and criticising this? This is why I say, Muslim Identity Politics has been the most catastrophic thing to happen to Muslims in the UK.
These are some more facts - there is a movement amongst some British Muslims to incorporate sharia laws and sharia codes into British life. This emanates from Muslims and Islamic activists themselves. That enacts what 'Eurabia' people say. There is religious extremism within British Islam that results in violence and marginalisation of moderate Muslim voices and murders non Muslims, that is not being faced up to adequately within the Muslim community. This is a reality. There are appalling oppressions of women and dissenters within some Islamic contexts in the UK. There are separatists impulses and open rhetoric of extremism that people see every day in colleges, schools and universities. There is a constant restatement of Islamic Ummah Identity Politics taking up a disproportionate amount of "wavelength" in British society, and this hardens feelings amongst non Muslims, perpetuating a more tribal mentality amongst everyone else. Society becomes not a culture that aspires to coherence, it aspires to mono-cultural groups in competition with each other for the crown of victimhood and 'Identity Power and Prominence'. Even the far-right BNP begin to ape this rhetoric - the white working class is posited as being under threat, as an other component in this reactionary competitive communalist dynamic that has been a fire furnished and blown into flame most actively and continually by (mostly male) Islamic Identity Politics.
Also, this 'wavelength' out of proportion to the actual numbers of Muslims in the UK also gives the impression of Islam constantly being larger than it is, because it seeks publicity to assert itself. Muslims are naturally prone to playing the numbers game - its always 'Islam is the fastest growing, the biggest, the best', when this is on loop constantly, and is asserted into the minds of people in general, it also gives the impression of assertive proportion and almost becomes like a threat. Again, this is the disaster of Ummah Identity Politics - it feeds and creates problems, but it is so hungry to assert itself it has no other mode. It can't be quiet. It has to be loud. That is its nature.
These are realities. You can say that they are being blown out of proportion, and that can be an argument (not something I would agree on completely, but it certainly has merit); but you can't say that these issues are being concocted in a vaccuum in the imaginations of 'Eurabia' types - when many of them actually have roots within British Islam, and thus whether 'Eurabia' is going to be a reality or not, it certainly gives the impression that we live in a society in which Islam is increasingly assertive, separatist, seeks special priveliges, and contains an activist class that perpetuates the idea of a single undifferentiated 'Ummah' mass that is at odds with wider society. So many things have happened to destroy trust between kuffars and Muslims. From the lack of real large scale introspection about the very real extremism that exists in some British mosques and communities, to the denial of this problem, to initiatives designed to lecture non Muslims about their supposed 'misperceptions' about Islam whilst not concentrating on those Muslims who have those 'misperceptions' that cause the problems in the first place. All of this has the cumulative effect of giving this impression that others, like 'Eurabia' types can interpret or exaggerate or look at from their own perspective.
You cannot confront 'Eurabia' dogmatists without acknowledging this, it simply is not tenable to do so with any real insight or honesty.
Topic: The clever tactics of Islamophobes