[Thor]

Its so frustrating to speak to my fellow liberals in Iceland about political Islam. A thread was started by a member of our Pirate party a speech given by a UK Imam who was preaching that Sharia family courts are the right of his religion, and that issues of Islam do not allow for equal rights for women, and of course that LGBT is an evil that cannot be accepted.

The number of attacks on this poster was depressing, calling him bigot, racist, comparing this to the Christians who hate gays, etc..

I chimed in trying to argue that we as a western secular society have to protect our classic liberal values of equality, and that the rule of law in a western nation has to be respected by all, you cannot opt out because of your faith.

Then I was attacked as a bigot, not tolerant of other cultures. I posed the idea that we would have a family here in Iceland where a spouse is abused by her husband and wants to get a divorce, with Sharia family courts which are prevalent in the UK, she would be told to stay with the husband, and the husband told to behave better.

Again the apologetic's come out of the woodwork, and the bigot card is played. I just can't get through to some people, they want to hold up Islam as this wonderful peaceful religion that is totally compatible to our values, while utterly ignoring the beliefs of the followers and how they want to live in the west.

If we on the left don't step up against these ideas, and don't support reformers within Islam fighting to modernize the faith, then we leave only the right wingers as the only and often scary voice against this clash of civilizations.