Michael at AmericaBlog asks two related and very difficult questions:
What do you do if a people want to live in your society but don’t embrace the values that society stands for?
and
If you don’t want to live in a free society that respects the rights of women and infidels and other religions, why did you move to the UK/France/Holland/etc in the first place?
As a member of a minority culture, I’m all for retaining one’s unique religious and/or ethnic identity. But if you’re going to live in a country dominated by a culture other than your own, you need to face up to reality and make your peace with it. If you can’t find a way to navigate the differences, that’s where the problems happen.
America’s history with regard to immigration issues is far from pristine. But overall I think we’ve managed fairly well. Our country’s relative youth and large geographic size has helped. Europe doesn’t have those advantages. On the plus side, though, the creation of the EU and the Euro currency unification have given them some object lessons in how to play nicely with their neighbors. We’ll see how it all plays out.