Talk Islam

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  johnpi 10:24 pm on December 27, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation, france (71), integration (15), mosque construction (15), mosque expansion (14), new mosques (14), xenophobia (7)

  ‘Marseillais Islam’: The New York Times had a feature article today on responses to a large new mosque that is being built in France’s second-largest city.

  The large new mosque, which its builders call “the symbol of Marseillais Islam,” is a source of pride here in France’s second-largest city, which is at least 25 percent Muslim. But it is also cause for alarm, Mr. Geisser said, embodying the paradox that visible signs of integration set off xenophobic anxiety. “All these symbols reveal a deeper, more lasting presence of Islam,” he said. “It’s the passage of something temporary to something that is implanted and takes root.”

   

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  aziz 12:34 pm on December 14, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ali eteraz (5), America (36), assimilation

  “America!” they said with a hint of contempt on their face. “The Yankees do not make a distinction between veiled and unveiled. Backward people! They are the only ones left that think all people ought to be treated the same.”

   
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  aziz 8:43 am on November 25, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: America (36), assimilation, culture (72), integration (15), Islam (243), muslim american (20), The West (27)

  Muslim Americans, The Next Generation: a guest post at City of Brass by Willow which is pretty much the perfect example of muslims “reflecting about their faith” that non-muslims are always insisting we do in response to violence and whatnot.

  an excerpt:

  Ironically I think Muslims are at a disadvantage because Islamic law is comparatively easy to practice and apply in isolation. The result is a community with a sustainable level of conservatism (ie, it’s not like orthodox Jewish or Catholic doctrine, which are almost impossible to keep up en toto outside a Jewish or a Catholic community with established kashrut/regular access to communion etc). Other communities were forced to give up a great deal of religious life simply because the bells-n-smells necessary to sustain it weren’t there. Muslims in America haven’t been forced to make compromises. So any compromises they do make come with an almost hilarious level of groaning and moaning, like they are doing everyone a ginormous favor by budging an inch.

   
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  johnpi 1:06 pm on November 10, 2009 | 3 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: America (36), american islam (8), American Muslims (70), assimilation, integration (15), islam in america (15), muslim american (20), muslim american extremism (25), muslim-americans (22), Muslims in America (36), Statistics (35)

  Pew research: 63 percent of US Muslims see no conflict in being devout and living in Modern society. Pew estimates the actual population of Muslims living in the United States at 2.35 million.

  The first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.

  Research findings:

  • Overall, Muslim Americans have a generally positive view of the larger society. Most say their communities are excellent or good places to live.

  • A large majority of Muslim Americans believe that hard work pays off in this society. Fully 71% agree that most people who want to get ahead in the United States can make it if they are willing to work hard.

  • The survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. On balance, they believe that Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs, rather than trying to remain distinct from the larger society. And by nearly two-to-one (63%-32%) Muslim Americans do not see a conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society.

  • Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.

   
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  johnpi 1:00 pm on October 29, 2009 | 10 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation, australia (24), immigration (51), integration (15), right-wing (96)

  Australian lawmaker calls for debate on Muslim immigration.

  Sydney – Member of Parliament Kevin Andrews on Thursday called for a national debate on whether Muslim immigration to Australia should be curbed. Andrews, immigration minister in the conservative government defeated two years ago, said Muslims were the first migrant group not to assimilate and to congregate in certain suburbs of big cities.

  “To have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good,” Andrews told local radio. “You should be able to talk about it … it’s ridiculous if you can’t talk about any subject.”

  Andrews was commenting on a column in The Australian newspaper arguing that large numbers of Muslim migrants posed a security risk because some would be drawn to terrorism.

  Andrews’ call for debate was immediately stomped on by Greens leader Bob Brown.

  “We are seeing a far-right, pretty disgusting point of view,” he said.

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 12:21 am on July 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation

  Somali refugees take up new roots in Greeley. mostly a feel good story, but:

  Concerns surfaced last year after JBS managers refused to let late-shift Somalis pray at sunset during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Workers walked off the job, and more than 100 were fired. Somali workers have since claimed ongoing issues with their Latino supervisors, Chavez said.

  “They believe they were treated differently because they were Somalis,” he said.

  (in parts of “middle america” the expulsion of illegal latinos has resulted in their replacement by somali refugees who have residency to work in slaughterhouses and such)

   
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  aziz 7:59 am on April 10, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation, culture (72)

  Are Asian names “too hard to deal with”? apparently so. Call me Osbourne Piszczatowski, then.

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 4:29 pm on April 1, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation, jews (19)

  it seems there are two religious models of how jewish minorities organize themselves.

  model 1 is the american one, where you have a plurality of judaisms which express a continuity of emphasis on orthopraxy and orthodoxy. the dominant tendency in american judaism is toward reform & conservative affiliation, a strong jewish affiliation & identity, but not an orthodox one.

  model 2 is the rest of the world. the major institutional form of judaism would be what we term as orthodox (‘liberal’ congregations are a small minority, and german reform was smashed by the holocaust), but the majority of jews are secular or non-practicing. this model holds in israel, for example. or, as an atheist canadian jewish friend once told me, “orthodox judaism is the religion that i am not.”

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 5:19 pm on February 27, 2009 | 6 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation

  tim noah has an ok piece in slate about american muslims and why they don’t blow themselves up in subways. lots of data, and touches upon the broad issues. a few critiques

  1) ~10% of france’s population is of historical muslim origin. just like 80-90% are of historical catholic origin. when concerned about ultramontane sentiment you don’t count all 80-90% of france’s population of catholic origin, but just the small minority of french who are observant catholics. in % terms france and the USA probably have have less of a difference in the number of religious muslims.

  2) noah on the one had points out the diversity among muslims, but talks of muslim immigrants as an amorphous mass. you have to really pick & choose.

  3) one of the important points in the piece, but which needs more emphasis i think, is the diversity of american muslims in comparison to the ethno-religious blocks in europe. muslims in the UK to a first approximation will pay a lot of attention to kashmir. in france to algeria. in germany to the tensions in turkey. this sort of tight parochialism is not possible in the USA. brown muslims have told me that arabs nearly fall asleep if they try to convince them of the importance kashmir, while i would bet many south asian muslims consider everything to the west of egypt as an undistinctive mass. and most non-black muslims have only a minimal interest in black nationalist causes.

   
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  razib, murtad fitri 6:39 pm on February 20, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assimilation, Israel (351)

  The Politics of Pig: How swine may have swayed Israel’s elections:

  The ultra-Orthodox community reserves a special animosity towards Russians, who they see as secularizing Israeli society and flouting Jewish tradition–illustrated most strikingly by their bolstering the pork trade. The influx of immigrants from a nation where pig meat was a staple of life and culture has been a boon to the quasi-legal industry, with many new grocery stores and delis opening in the past 15 years to serve their needs. The ultra-Orthodox see it as a direct insult–as if pig heads are tauntingly sticking their tongues out of shop windows, as Tel Aviv chef Jeffrey Lewis described it to me.