Clashing Cultures vs Assimilation

For John, BLUF:  I am for immigration, even of Muslims, but I want the straight facts.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Town Hall and Mr John Hawkins, yesterday, we have "Dear American Muslims, Can We Have An Honest Talk?".

Here is the start of the piece

On 9/11, one of my roommates was a Turkish pilot.  Not only was he sent home that day, he didn’t work again for weeks.  In one moment he was just a guy with a religion that most Americans had no strong opinions about.  In the next, there were people who thought he was potentially dangerous because of what he believed.

I’m sure a lot of Muslims have gone through that and since then, every other day it seems like there’s a story in the news about a Muslim blowing himself up, murdering innocent people or taking sex slaves.  Ironically, most of the victims of these Muslims are other Muslims.  So, if you’re a peaceful Muslim who loves his country, I’m sure it’s easy to feel under siege.

Personally, I think most American Muslims are good people; they’re anti-terrorist; they’re anti-Sharia law and they want to raise their families in peace and pursue the American Dream just like everybody else.  I condemn in the strongest of terms, not just hate crimes and harassment, but the smearing of all Muslims with the same brush.  Every Muslim who seems like a nice guy isn’t engaging in Taqiyya as he secretly plans to kill the infidels.  Moreover, telling Muslims who mean us no harm that if they understood their own religion, they’d be murdering the rest of us is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.

Spot on.  Americans are Americans and Muslims who are Americans are just as good, or as bad, as the rest of us.  They prove them selves time and time again.  Here is a piece from "The Ideas Section" of The Boston Globe this last Sunday.  Mr John Rodriquez, from the Truman National Security Project give us "My Muslim brothers-in-arms".  Good article and spot on.

But, Mr Hawkins, after reviewing the statistics world-wide, ends on an important point:

If you want to dramatically cut the risk of having another 9/11 in the next few years and want to reduce the number of American women who will be raped, reducing the number of Muslims we allow to live in our country long-term would be the most effective thing we could do.

It all depends on how willing we are to deal with the world as it is as opposed to what we wish it would be.  It’s time to stop pretending that the problem is people pointing out that a significant minority of Muslims worldwide are radicalized and to start realistically dealing with the fact that a significant minority of Muslims worldwide are radicalized.  With everything we know, we shouldn’t need another 9/11 to convince us to start taking reasonable precautions with our immigration policy.

And, I would assert, the Federal and State Governments are not helping us make choices as voters and make accommodations as neighbors because they are not giving us the full story on immigration.  No fireside chats, no insights, no statistics.  Put another way, one of the things lacking in dealing with this is leadership.  At least with President George W Bush I thought I was getting the straight skinny.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff