Muslims Address Silence on Europe Attacks

Alia Kdeih, 50, who came to Paris in 1977, at the height of a civil war in her native Lebanon, poses in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris, Tuesday June 20, 2006. Europe's Muslims have remained largely silent in the face of terrorist attacks that have killed 254 people in Madrid, London and Amsterdam. Europeans want to know why. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon) (Jacques Brinon - AP)

In a poll of British Muslims after the July 2005 suicide attacks on London's transport system, 6 percent thought the bombings were justified. Another 24 percent condemned the attacks but had some sympathy with the bombers' grievances.

Many Europeans blame the Continent's Muslim leadership, which they accuse of making ambiguous and qualified condemnations that give the impression they are making excuses for the bombers: grievances over the war in Iraq or the West's support for Israel.

"It's the leaders who are most responsible," said Rory Miller, senior lecturer of Mediterranean studies at King's College, London.

Europe's Muslims, who originate from 57 countries, differ in culture, language and even the strain of Islam they follow. They came at different periods and for different reasons. Some were born here and consider themselves as much French or British as they are Muslim.

Condemnations by most of the Muslims interviewed for this article had no strings attached.

Azahaf, 23, was among the thousands who marched in Amsterdam against Van Gogh's killing. "I demonstrated not for Van Gogh but for freedom to talk, to say what you want," he said.

Olivier Roy, a respected French scholar of Islam, says Muslim silence is a "classical psychology of immigrants" _ wanting to be "normal" and become mainstream. "For them, integration means to be recognized as citizens. They don't want to be recognized for their specificity."

Sue Vogel, a psychologist who practices in Muslim-populated Bedford, in central England, said that after last year's bombings in London there was a great sense of guilt among some of her Muslim patients. "I had to do a lot of work to convince them that I saw them as people, rather than as Muslims," she said.

Lamia Hamdoun, 33, a teacher at a boys' school, emigrated to England from Tunisia 12 years ago. Last year's London bombings were so overwhelming for her, she says, that she prefers to remain invisible.

"When these incidents happen, I'm always scared. ... I shrink," said Hamdoun, who lives in a tiny apartment in north London with her Egyptian husband, Mohammed, and 9-month old-son, Sammy _ whose name was chosen because it's common both in the Muslim world and the West.

She said she fears that her husband may be arrested in a police sweep just because of his looks or name. "I wish we could change his name so people don't know.

"I just don't want to think about it, I want to just get on with my life, deal with my personal problems. It's something I can't deal with."

Many of Europe's best-integrated Muslims say their lives are so far removed from those of the radicals that it simply has never occurred to them to protest.

Alia Kdeih, 50, came to Paris in 1977, at the height of a civil war in her native Lebanon. She got her degree from the Sorbonne, married a Lebanese and presents a cultural program on the Arabic service of French government-owned Radio Monte Carlo. Her elegant Western-decorated apartment in a middle-class Paris neighborhood has only a few flavors of Lebanon.

Kdeih said she will not go into the streets to condemn the attacks even though she's appalled by them _ pointing out that her identity is not defined by Islam.

"It's not something I want to stress," she said. "I don't feel responsible for what happened even if they are Muslims."