Europe’s Muslims Get to be the Continent’s New Jews

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/europe%E2%80%99s-muslims-get-to-be-the-continent%E2%80%99s-new-jews-26042/

Issues swirling around Europe’s non-assimilation of its Muslim population recall its anti-Semitic past...

...the fear of Islam in Europe goes very much hand in hand with fear of globalization and fear of the European Union. The ultra-right wing anti-Islam parties that are forming, like the British National Party or the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, cloak their anti-Muslim rhetoric in this larger anti-European Union rhetoric. The changes in the ethnic landscape of society of which Muslims are the most obvious representation, is what these groups are decrying, but they’re using anti-Muslim sentiments to bolster their arguments.

The last time we saw that kind of ultra-nationalist rhetoric and ideology that we see now sweeping through Europe, it was against the Jews. Back then, how did you define yourself as European? You do so in opposition to the Jew. Now you’re hearing the exact same conversations and rhetoric being directed toward Europe’s Muslim population. That’s not to say we can expect another holocaust. Of course not; we live in a different society now. But this rhetoric is no different than what we’ve heard before, and it needs to be called out.

Muslims who immigrated to Europe came primarily after World War II, invited as guest workers to clean up the devastation. And for the most part, they were treated precisely as guest workers. They were not given an opportunity to really assimilate into the culture. They were more or less put into ethnically isolated communities and neighborhoods, and they didn’t mind. They themselves really thought this was temporary. They sent a lot of their money back to their home countries.

It’s just that they then started having kids and now this next generation that feels as British or German or Dutch as anyone else is still ethnically segregated and isolated. But if you’re a Muslim immigrant to the United States, you came here because you were able to come here. Right away that puts you into a certain economic bracket. In fact, the Muslim-American community is incredibly wealthy. The median income for a Muslim household (in the US) is higher than non-Muslim households. Sixty percent of American Muslims own their own home. I’m sorry, but the wealthier you are, the easier it is to assimilate.