source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article4333354.ece
Who says that Islamists can't learn a trick or two from the West when
they have to? Take a glance at the glossy brochure of Islam Expo -
billed as Europe's ābiggest Islamic cultural festivalā - which ended
at Olympia yesterday. You could be forgiven for thinking that you were
looking at the catalogue for the forthcoming Boden sale that comes to
the venerable London exhibition centre in a few weeks' time.
Visitors to Islam Expo would have witnessed such innocent activities
as an Islamic arts and crafts workshop for under 12s, live Islamic
storytelling performances and lute-playing and poetry recitals in the
pomegranate and date gardens.
The old Comintern would have instantly recognised the first rate
tradecraft involved in organising all this. Just as Moscow and its
allies knew how to organise a āpopular frontā to draw non-communist
progressives and liberals into their orbit of influence, so some
Islamists have honed a keen sense of how to present a non-threatening
face to the West and to the many hundreds of decent, apolitical
Muslims who turned up for a family day out.