Whilst I'm glad there is heavy focus on the gun culture of the US and ease with which psychopaths can buy their mass-murder weapons, to me the elephant in the room, especially amongst those of 'the left' is the incompatibility of conservative Islam with liberal western values that have delivered progress on issues such as LGBT rights and societal acceptance.
Yes, there are [so-called] Christian cretins who rant fire & brimstone about the sin of homosexuality, especially in the backwards regions of the US, but they generally stick to vitriolic ravings rather than mass murder (these days at least).
That doesn't compare to the widescale societal hatred toward LGBT people in countries where conservative Islam is prevalent. The problem is that immigrants to 'the west' from these societal backwaters like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, etc bring with them that negative cultural baggage like homophobia, misogyny, FGM, forced/arranged marriage - and *we*, as the indigenous society, who have evolved our societal culture to largely lose the widespread homophobia & chauvinism that once blighted us, have for too long turned a blind eye.
We've had the message of 'multiculturalism' drummed into us, predominantly by those grouped under the 'metropolitan liberal elite' moniker. Now multiculturalism is fine by me and, I suspect, most people agree. But there is a problem when one of the cultures - or, to be more accurate, certain facets of a culture - are diametrically opposed to the core socially progressive principles that we've developed.
In other words, how do 'we' square the equal rights and respect ethos with the 'rights' of certain ethnic minorities to retain the insidious aspects of the culture of their ancestral home countries? The difficulty of the problem is exacerbated by the fact that these nefarious aspects of 'their' culture is enshrined in a religion. And, despite religion being nothing but a personal lifestyle choice, we have had 'the powers that be' continuously drum into us that we must respect the 'rights' of people to practice their religious beliefs.
So what happens when we have competing principles such as the rights of LGBT people or the rights of women, against conservative Islam and the backwards cultures of immigrants from certain Asian/North African countries that seek to demonise (at best) LGBT people, and to refuse to accept that women are equal and are entitled to equal treatment?
At present, there's a hypocritical mess, a combination of obfuscation and head-in-the-sand ignoring the issue. The authorities pretend the issue doesn't exist, and brush under the carpet instances where it does show it's ugly fance. I guess that goes someway to explaining why local authorities and the police tried to cover-up the gangs of Muslim men around the country targeting white British girls for systematic child abuse.
I personally think the message should be loud and clear that, for people coming to live in 'the west', liberal western values predominate over backwards cultural aberrations like misogyny & homophobia
