text: "The cultural values surrounding women, critical inquiry, freedom of expression and freedom of conscience in many Muslim countries are often at odds with prevailing Western norms."
  
  The author is correct, of course. (She also might have added sexual orientation to her list, but perhaps that's a non-starter?) The problem these days is that too many "progressive" commentators would denounce the same statement as that made by the author as xenophobic were it being made by the wrong person. Such a statement might even be censored in the MSM. We now regularly hear that the concept of 'free speech' (or free expression), which is integral to Western values, simply amounts to 'coded' or 'veiled' language that implies intolerant intent on the part of those who raise it. Here, however, the author presumably gets a pass. It's our own perfidy that will lead us to forfeit our values if we don't stand up for them.