Bawer fears that on an everyday level, the situation for gay men in cities like Oslo and Amsterdam is becoming more difficult, with an increase in attacks by Muslim youths. In Oslo, reports of assaults on gays by Muslims are increasing, and instead of admitting to this as a problem, prominent Muslims are arguing that in "their" neighbourhoods, Muslim cultural values should reign, meaning that gays who enter their territory should not, for example, hold hands.  In one recent incident, a gay couple exchanged a kiss in an Oslo kebab joint and were chased down the street by a fellow-customer. Later, one of them told a reporter: "It was perhaps a little dumb of us to do that. I don't like to provoke people." Bawer notes: "This is the reigning mentality. Gays have learned to blame themselves for having ‘provoked' people who want to beat them up for being gay." 

Bawer's concern is echoed by Lloyd Newson, the choreographer and leader of the highly-praised dance company, DV8 Physical Theatre. In 2008, the company produced To Be Straight With You, a mixed media and performance piece which brilliantly explored anti-gay feeling in all its international forms and guises, including Islamic. The arts are famously the home to a great number of gay men, which makes the lack of creative comment on Islam and homosexuality all the more pointed. Newson's work stands virtually alone. He was inspired to create the piece after he and his Indian partner, taking part in a Gay Pride march, had abuse yelled at them by Afro-Caribbean onlookers. Although equal weight is given to other religions in the show, Newson feels that in terms of physical danger, as opposed to the simple expression of anti-gay sentiment, Islam is the most threatening.

"I did To Be Straight With You because the debate needs to be had right here, right now," he says. "It's when people's backs are up against the wall that they start to engage." Concerned by the high proportion of Muslims who state a preference for sharia, and by the creeping censorship of all criticism of Islam, he has also come up against those who find any critique of it too rich for their blood. 

"While we were making To be Straight With You, some white liberals we spoke to couldn't handle hearing any challenges to a religious community, if it was non-white," he says. Indeed, he lost a board member over the issue. "They were very anxious," he says. "Their position is that you can only criticise ‘your own' culture, race and/or religion, you cannot criticise anything ‘other'." 

Those who refrain from passing any judgment which they view as "culturally imperialist" are, arguably, also not helping Muslims who are themselves gay (the same principle applies to many Western feminists, whose silence over the treatment of women in Islam is shameful).  While researching the project, Newson learned of the fear felt by many gay Muslims, some of whom had had "horrific experiences". Last year, the gay homeless charity, the Albert Kennedy Trust, reported that it was seeing a rise in the number of gay Muslims fleeing from forced marriages and domestic violence. There is a support group, Imaan, which was set up in 1998 and is run by volunteers, and there was a well-received Channel 4 documentary in 2006, Gay Muslims, which helped to shed light on their predicament but in which most of those taking part kept their identities hidden. A high-profile storyline in the BBC soap EastEnders features a relationship between a gay white man and a Muslim, the latter being forced to go ahead with a marriage by his ashamed and terrified mother.