Writing for the AEI, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has this to say

“[T]he most effective way for European Union governments to deal with their Muslim minorities is to empower the Muslim women living within their borders. The best tool for empowering these women is education. Yet the education systems of some European Union countries are going through a crisis of neglect, particularly with regard to immigrant children. We are paying the price of mixing education with ideology. However, let me stick to the important subject of freeing women from the shackles of superstitious belief and tribal custom…European policy-makers have not yet understood the huge potential of liberating Muslim women. They are squandering the single best opportunity they have to make Muslim integration a success within one generation. Morally, governments need to eradicate violence against women in Europe. This would make clear to fundamentalists that Europeans take their constitutions seriously. Now, most abusers simply think that Western rhetoric about the equality of men and women is cowardly and hypocritical, since Western governments tolerate the abuse of millions of Muslim women when they’re told it’s in the name of freedom of religion.”

Well said. On the other hand, here’s what the government of Tony Blair (fearless freedom fighter, Neocon idol, champion of the West, you know how it goes) is up to (via the Times): “The Government dropped plans to make forced marriage illegal in June, after the Muslim Council of Britain cautioned that it could be “another way to stigmatise our communities”…

Appalling. Cowardly. Typical.