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Home Front: WoT
Muslim Americans: Model Citizens
2005-09-06
Via JihadWatch
Muslims in the U.S. tend to be "role models," both as Americans and as Muslims, according to an eye-opening commentary in the Wall Street Journal.

After it was revealed that three of the four subway bombers in London were born in England, the British began taking a hard look at their Muslim neighbors. They found that one-quarter of British Muslims do not feel loyal to Britain; Muslims are three times as likely to be unemployed than the general population; and their rates of civic participation are low.

The Journal, however, took a look at the situation among Muslim in the U.S. and found:

  • Most Arab-Americans aren't Muslims. Only 24 percent of the 1.2 million Americans of Arab descent are Muslim, and most of the rest are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant.

  • Most American Muslims aren't Arabs. One third are of South Asian descent, 20 percent are American blacks and just 26 percent are Arabs.

  • Muslim advocacy groups say there are more than 6 million Muslims in the U.S. But the most credible study to date estimates the total Muslim population at 1,886,000.

  • 59 percent of American Muslims have at least an undergraduate degree, making them the most highly educated group in the U.S.

  • American Muslims comprise the richest Muslim community in the world - four out of five earn more than $25,000 a year and one in three makes more than $75,000.

  • 82 percent are registered to vote.

  • 64 percent of American Muslims are foreign born, but the overwhelming majority arrived here legally.

  • 21 percent of American Muslims marry a member of another faith.

    According to the data compiled by the Journal, the U.S. does not have a "Muslim problem," write Bret Stephens and Joseph Rago in the commentary. "On the contrary, America's Muslims tend to be role models both as Americans and as Muslims." But the Journal warns: "It takes no more than a few men (or women) to carry out a terrorist atrocity, and there can be no guarantee that the U.S. is immune from homegrown Islamist terror."
    • Posted by:ed

    #13  I was having a problem with the definition of the word "Arab" when I lived and worked in Lebanon (69-73) (my area was Middle-East and North-Africa up to Tunisia) and still have one.

    For instance, at the time, most Druze, Maronites, Copte or Catholics did'nt consider themselves "Arabs", nor did part of the Palestinians. It,s a bit like Americans (North and South), Europeans (What am I, A Caucasian, a Indo-European, an Aryan a Celt or a Helvete) or Asians or even Indians (Aztec, Maya, Aucas, Jivaros, Guaranis, Navajos,etc. and Indians from India).

    Bottom line, it seems to me that "Arab" is now just a convenient label with no real meaning to describe any trouble makers from ME.

    /End of rant
    Posted by: SwissTex   2005-09-06 11:34  

    #12  Parts of this I can easily believe. Outside of clusters of Arab-Muslims, such as Detroit, there are little enclaves of Arab-Non-Muslims, Non-Arab-Muslims, and Non-Arab-Non-Muslims but from Arabic or Indo-European Moslem nations, all over the place.
    Persian Christians, Assyrian Christians, Sikhs, Persian Zoroastrians, several varieties of Orthodox Christians, Animists and others are spread out all over the US.

    Many of the Moslems living in the US are terribly factionalized by their sect and practices. It is difficult to even arrange a meal between two such groups without spending a lot of time fussing over protocol. The differences are so great that at times, even lumping them together as "Moslems" seems a stretch.

    Upper class Moslems from around the world want to send their children to the US to get an education, but not to learn or practice the US culture. Many of them are therefore "smart, but stupid" about things taken for granted in the US.

    One glaring example was a Lebanese Moslem who insisted that most of the US defense budget *had* to go in support of the Israeli army, which he had actually seen. The reality was too horrible to conceive, and he rejected it outright. And yet, he was almost through a degree as an Electronics Engineer.

    I have heard some Moslem women loudly complain about being excluded from a more orthodox mosque, just for being women, which evolved into an attack on the head scarf as "not in the Koran", and a wish that their brothers were here so they could kick the orthodox out of the mosque.

    During the Iranian hostage crisis, the local university was able to distinguish 14 different clans of Iranians at the university, each of which despised the others. Yet all were very alien to the US and its ways, and kept to their cultural and political isolation.

    Model citizens? Many, yes. Some, no. But America has a way of dissolving old alliegences and traditions, given time. The less Moslems can ghetto-ize, the faster they will integrate.
    Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-09-06 11:02  

    #11  Well, what percentage of non-moslem American are not loyal to America? You have ANSWER, NION, MoveOn, the Congressional Black Caucus, John Kerry, Chris Dodd,...
    Posted by: Jackal   2005-09-06 10:40  

    #10  Then what are the remaining 21%?
    Africans (Somalis, Nigerians, etc.), Iranians, Bosnisans, Albanians, Turks, American converts.
    Posted by: ed   2005-09-06 09:35  

    #9  They are also very active in the private sector, most notably the convenience store market.
    Posted by: Chris W.   2005-09-06 09:28  

    #8  Most of the american-arabs I have met have been wonderful people. But, they weren't Islamic, or practicing Islam either and had not a very high opinion of the clerics.
    Posted by: mmurray821   2005-09-06 09:26  

    #7  Who wrote this? CAIR?
    Posted by: CrazyFool   2005-09-06 09:21  

    #6  "One third are of South Asian descent, 20 percent are American blacks and just 26 percent are Arabs."
    33%+20%+26%=79%
    Ok.Then what are the remaining 21%?
    Posted by: raptor   2005-09-06 09:17  

    #5  It was a rethorical question, Snaise.
    Posted by: gromgoru   2005-09-06 09:05  

    #4  Hey gromgoru, ever hear of Oliver Cromwell? Look up the history of the jews during Cromwell's time.
    Posted by: Snaise Slaling6562   2005-09-06 08:58  

    #3  After it was revealed that three of the four subway bombers in London were born in England, the British began taking a hard look at their Muslim neighbors. They found that one-quarter of British Muslims do not feel loyal to Britain

    Sometimes I wonder. What whould've happened if a survey found that one-quarter of British Jews do not feel loyal to Britain?
    Posted by: gromgoru   2005-09-06 08:16  

    #2  Most Arab-Americans aren't Muslims. Only 24 percent of the 1.2 million Americans of Arab descent are Muslim, and most of the rest are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant.
    Otherwise known as refugees.
    Posted by: gromgoru   2005-09-06 08:11  

    #1  I feel much better now. One question though - what planet does the author live on these days?
    Posted by: MunkarKat   2005-09-06 08:02  

    00:00