June 19, 2007 | By DeEtte Chatterton

Islam and Europe

Europe faces a number of challenges from extremist Islam, a British Member of the European Parliament declared today at a Heritage Foundation panel discussion about the rise of radical Islam in Britain and on the Continent.

According to Dr. Syed Kamall, education is the key to reversing the trends towards radicalism among European Muslims. “We must educate youth on how to live as a Muslim within the context of modern society,” he explained. “We have to start engaging in the battle of ideas in Islam.”

He challenged Europe and the United States to wage a war of ideas in the fight against extremism. “We will not prevail over those who justify violence with faith if we have faith in violence alone.”

John O’Sullivan, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, said multiculturalism has eroded European and especially British society, creating “a vacuum of identity.” Any solution, then, must undo the damage multiculturalism has wrought. He suggested that European nations must provide “a national identity to be proud of and then demand that they be proud of it.”

These same lessons can be applied to the United States, noted Heritage expert Lisa Curtis. She agued that while extremism in the United States remains at relatively low levels, “Muslim-Americans should engage directly in the battlefield of ideas” in order to keep radicalism from increasing. She emphasized that Americans cannot let fear and ignorance regarding Islam isolate peaceful, moderate Muslims in this country.

DeEtte Chatterton is an intern at The Heritage Foundation.