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Old 07-19-2008   #7 (permalink)
Calboner
Calboner is offline


I think that when Americans read reports like this, they (we) tend to assume that immigrants in European countries have wishes and aspirations similar to those that bring immigrants to the United States; that is, we tend to assume that these people have come to enjoy civic freedoms and economic opportunities that are not available to them in their countries of origin, and that they want to become fully acculturated members of their new country. I don't pretend to be any expert in these matters, but I gather from what I have read that such assumptions are far off the mark. No doubt there are some Muslim immigrants who fit the picture, but far more do not. Yes, they want to be free of the governments of their countries of origin, but not because they accept Western ideas of individualism and equality: rather, because they abhor those governments for being secular rather than properly Islamic. They seek economic opportunity, but have no interest in assimilating themselves to Western ways. And the governments of most European countries, as I understand, tend to encourage this isolation under the idea that they are respecting cultural differences.

I do not add strangers to my "Friends" list.
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