Excerpt:
"I'm afraid you are slowly turning into an Islamist", says an Egyptian friend after a lengthy discussion on Dutch politics. His remark shocks me. I've been a secular leftist all my life. Since my university years, now almost 30 years ago, I have considered the Islamists as my arch-enemies.
The fact that they took power in my country Sudan and eventually forced me to leave as a refugee has not exactly improved my relationship with them.
But having lived in the Netherlands for more than ten years, I am gradually realising that I have woken up to a completely different political situation, where familiar things have taken a different meaning and where old enemies appear in new clothes.