That Islamic militancy is a threat to the Enlightenment values of the West is, one would think, obvious, and it’s something that needs a vigorous intellectual response as a supplement to the police work of the current anti-terrorist campaign. Despite this, hogtied by PC and the shibboleths of multiculturalism, this is an approach that politicians seem curiously unwilling to try. Still, in her address to a “conference of chairmen of Islamic centres and Imams in Europe,” the Austrian foreign minister shows that she, at least, is beginning to take some tentative steps in this direction:

“Let me, from my viewpoint as Austrian foreign minister, briefly outline the nature of these expectations on the basis of a few issues, which I hope you will discuss in the course of your meeting and take into consideration in your “Graz Declaration”:

Are human rights merely compatible with Islam, as is written in the agenda for this conference, or do the Islamic institutions in Europe have specific ways and means of defending and advocating human rights, both actively and by initiative…”

Blogger Bill in Austria has more.