living in america (and originally from canada) i can attest that for one reason or another, people of british origin are FAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR over the top about islam. either they really detest it with a passion, or are fananatically passionate about it.
i dont think turks are any less conservative than arabs, africans, or persians. its just that muslims from the indian sub-continent are just notoriously narrow-minded which, in my opinion, has more to do with indian culture than islam itself.
to put things in perspective, desi muslims are looked down upon by all other muslims (just like indians are looked down on by non-indians). therefore, to compensate their inherent insecurities, the desis have adopted the most fanatical sect of islam -- wahabism. mainly to appease the arabs whom desis venerate, though to be fair to desis US World Report wrote an article about how saudis have spent $70 billion to propagte wahabism.
all in all, this is more of an issue of identity crisis since almost every desi muslim you will meet will love to tell you about how he is descended from some outside invading muslim tribes, when in fact genetically and culturally they are a mirror image of hindus and sikhs to the extent that even many pathans have the same surnames as their north indian non-muslim brethren.
non-muslim desis also suffer from the same colonial complex. i am sure we have all come across the new brand of educated "jats" who go around thumping about their "saka/scythian" origins and consequently linking themselves to every dynasty to ever grace iran to mongolia and every land in between. of course the origins of these "theories" (now disproven) lie in fabulous tales spun by their british masters.
then there is the whole "aryan" theory and the belief of many dark-skinned hindus that they are descended from whites if not white themselves. add to this some lunatic rantings of adolf hitler, and hindus will not stop proclaiming their aryan-hood to the world.
so all in all, what i'm saying is that indians of all ilk, muslims and hindus, suffer from a colonial complex where they are in denial of their indian identity while at the same time being highly protective of their individual clan/tribe/caste whatever they maybe to the point of looking down on every other indian clan/tribe/caste. and living in england, these feelings amongst the desis are just magnified. thats why i believe that many americans and canadians find british desis to be just .... odd (at the risk of sounding ethnocentric myself, i always felt they were kinda "backwards"). :shutup:
cya