| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| America's Muslims Aren't as Assimilated as You Think |
| 2006-08-27 |
| By Geneive Abdo If only the Muslims in Europe -- with their hearts focused on the Islamic world and their carry-on liquids poised for destruction in the West -- could behave like the well-educated, secular and Americanizing Muslims in the United States, no one would have to worry. So runs the comforting media narrative that has developed around the approximately 6 million Muslims in the United States, who are often portrayed as well-assimilated and willing to leave their religion and culture behind in pursuit of American values and lifestyle. But over the past two years, I have traveled the country, visiting mosques, interviewing Muslim leaders and speaking to Muslim youths in universities and Islamic centers from New York to Michigan to California -- and I have encountered a different truth. I found few signs of London-style radicalism among Muslims in the United States. At the same time, the real story of American Muslims is one of accelerating alienation from the mainstream of U.S. life, with Muslims in this country choosing their Islamic identity over their American one. A new generation of American Muslims -- living in the shadow of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- is becoming more religious. They are more likely to take comfort in their own communities, and less likely to embrace the nation's fabled melting pot of shared values and common culture. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #29 nice, zenster. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-08-27 22:51 |
| #28 #7 Why am I not surprised that America's first madrassah is in San Francisco? Posted by Swamp Blondie Swamp Blondie: San Francisco is one large Madrassah! Look for example, this clown lives there! In his recent appearance on the Laura Ingram show, the clown advocated that the US should close all its overseas bases. |
| Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden 2006-08-27 17:25 |
| #27 quarantine islam. Bright Pebbles, you misspelled the word "qur'antine". |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-27 16:25 |
| #26 It's absolutely a one way street affair in ALL matters with 'em, heh. And it's up to us to make sure that one way street leads straight to hell. Personally, I'm not too worried about "Muslims" that don't participate in mosque activities. You'd better be, Darrell. In many locations where there are no mosques, people set up "home mosques". This has proven to be a definite source of trouble in that radicalized Muslim groups who shun publicity will avoid a mosque with Moderate™ doctrine so as not to attract notice. Do you think that all members of the SDS or ELF vote? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-27 16:20 |
| #25 If they like to live under that foreign law, extradite them from THIS Holy land. Let them live under THEIR belief and NOT over US. |
| Posted by: newc 2006-08-27 14:51 |
| #24 One culture, One Demos, One Democracy, One country. Multiculture, multi Demos, no democracy, civil war. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-08-27 14:41 |
| #23 quarantine islam. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2006-08-27 14:33 |
| #22 Only the apostate of i-slam can be safely certified as belonging to the human fold on par with other normal people. |
| Posted by: Duh! 2006-08-27 13:22 |
| #21 Darrel: Not all terror is mosque based. Many US terrorists have been associated with the Muslim Students Association, which runs Friday Prayer/jihad incitement at public expense in most US colleges and universities. Also, Internet incitement enables creation of terror cells, without directly advocating terror. In his Book of Jihad, Averroes distinguished front line fighting from financing it from a home base. Muslims who intentionally finance terror, by sending money to jihad fronts, are as guilty of terror as those who carry it out. Denial and persecution BS are CAIR weapons of war. |
| Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 2006-08-27 12:47 |
| #20 Personally, I'm not too worried about "Muslims" that don't participate in mosque activities. They're about as dangerous as Democrats who don't vote. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-08-27 12:39 |
| #19 hmmm. At the NASCAR race at Bristol, there was 160,000 fans in attendance, in a town with a population of 25,000. Using Cair's method, I estimate that 650% of Americans are Nascar fans, roughly 1.4 billion Americans. See? It does work |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-08-27 12:33 |
| #18 Here's CAIR's "logic" for 6 million U.S. Muslims: "Researchers called the nation's 1,209 known mosques and interviewed leaders at 416 of them. Respondents were asked to estimate the number of people involved in their mosque in any way. The average response was 1,625 participants. Multiplying that figure by the 1,209 mosques, lead researcher Ihsan Bagby determined there were two million 'mosqued Muslims' in the United States. "Bagby, a professor of international relations at Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., multiplied that number by three to account for people who identify themselves as Muslims but might not participate in mosque activities. He calls this multiplier an educated guess based on years of observation of the Islamic community." http://www.answers.com/topic/council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-08-27 12:16 |
| #17 "The fact that they live by the creed of pursuing demographic warfare is clearly suggestive of the desire to dominate and NOT assimilate in any Western democratic host countries." Demographic warfare is no joke. They will use our freedoms as a cover to protect their ultimate jihadi aims. Remember about a year ago when there were articles here about Moslems building Moslem communities within America--with Moslem schools, mosques, community centers, etc.? It is an invasion. And the jihadiis will seek to convert the "Americanized" moslems who are already here to beef up the "army." |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2006-08-27 11:57 |
| #16 " . . . the real story of American Muslims is one of accelerating alienation from the mainstream of U.S. life-- with Muslims in this country choosing their Islamic identity over their American one." Well, there you have it. They CHOOSE it. While I can appreciate the sentiment, this cracked me up: "My biggest fear is that I might assimilate to the American lifestyle so much that my modesty goes out the window." Does she have any idea how a Moslem "husband" is going to treat her "modesty?" |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2006-08-27 11:53 |
| #15 The fact that they live by the creed of pursuing demographic warfare(breeding like |
| Posted by: Duh! 2006-08-27 11:50 |
| #14 There's six million Muslims now? That's amazing since according to the census bureau, there were only 1.104 M out of an adult population of 207.980 M adults in the USA in 2001. This is obviously Islamist propaganda. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2006-08-27 11:13 |
| #13 multiculturalism was always going to fail. Guess we just wait and see how violent that failure will be. |
| Posted by: anon1 2006-08-27 10:02 |
| #12 Into it only, by all means foul, Darth: Kidnapped Fox journalists convert to Islam on video link here It's absolutely a one way street affair in ALL matters with 'em, heh.
| |
| Posted by: Duh! 2006-08-27 09:48 |
| #11 Islam does not allow conversion. Period. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-08-27 08:54 |
| #10 Madrasas bring trouble. In 2001, there was only 1 Madrasa in Canada and it brought trouble. On Jan. 5, 2002, the National Post (Toronto) reports that the "mufti sahib" of the "Islamic Center of Ajax" was charged after sexually assaulting boys. Not in my neighborhood please. |
| Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 2006-08-27 08:48 |
| #9 As long as they cannot leave i-slam, there is no real assimilation possible but a sort of make belief assumption. You'll never have such a problem with any other immigrants outside this uncompromisingly cultish creed on the matter of assimilation because their credos don't teach eternal animus with yours in such a complete manner as i-slam - not even stale commies can't change. WHY IS ISLAM SO DIFFERENT? AN OVERVIEW http://www.6thcolumnagainstjihad.com/CUBED_P1.htm |
| Posted by: Duh! 2006-08-27 08:39 |
| #8 The problem with the title of this article is that I don't think Muslims in the US are all that assimilated. Sure, some are. But probably 90% aren't. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-08-27 08:14 |
| #7 Why am I not surprised that America's first madrassah is in San Francisco? |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2006-08-27 06:23 |
| #6 TU6270, Yep, muslim immigration is a clusterfuck in progress. Unfortunately things will have to get a lot worse before anyone is prepared to deal with the problem. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-08-27 06:16 |
| #5 "The men and women I spoke to -- all mosque-goers, most born in the United States to immigrants -- include students, activists, imams and everyday working Muslims. Almost without exception, they recall feeling under siege after Sept. 11, with FBI agents raiding their mosques and homes, neighbors eyeing them suspiciously and television programs portraying Muslims as the new enemies of the West. Such feelings led them, they say, to adopt Islamic symbols -- the hijab , or head covering, for women and the kufi , or cap, for men -- as a defense mechanism. Many, such as Rehan, whom I met at a madrassa (religious school) in California with her husband, Ramy, also felt compelled to deepen their faith." Good grief. What complete utter nonsense. Lessee... "I feel under seige so I think I'll set myself apart, accentuate my Muslimness, choose backward misogynistic misanthropic madrassah training over a liberal education, make myself clearly identifiable with the perps, and prove I don't belong here by giving my allegiance to the shithole ideology I dragged in with me." Yeah, that makes perfect Muzzy Sense. Go piss up a rope, puddlehead. |
| Posted by: Threatch Unons6270 2006-08-27 05:28 |
| #4 When your mooselimbs assimilate the cow will jump over the Moon. |
| Posted by: Duh! 2006-08-27 04:42 |
| #3 Muzzie behavior is the same everywhere. They have too small a base here YET. Look to Dearborn where they are a concentrated population mass. They already demand their own rules. They have already cowtowed that imbecile Dingell. We need to immediately stop any further entry of Mooselimbs into the US. Then, we need to closely monitor and deport any of the ones here who cause any problems at all. For me, this would be marching in our streets carrying Hezbollock flags. That group should ahve been surrounded and deported. |
| Posted by: SOP35/Rat 2006-08-27 02:06 |
| #2 Liberty and democracy are anathema to Muslims. They only pretend to assimilate for taqiyah purpose. |
| Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 2006-08-27 00:55 |
| #1 Muslims in this country choosing their Islamic identity over their American one. Just like we'll probably be choosing deportation over jail time. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-27 00:54 |
