Saturday, September 09, 2006

Increasing Muslim immigration to US

Story in New York Times about Muslim immigration to US rising again after post-9/11 drop
Good sign in a number of ways:
1) People from predominantly Muslim nations still want to come here.
2) They can come here.
3) This gradually builds up connections between those nations and us, connections that endure even through political tensions and that somewhat undercut any attempts to demonize America (and the modern West in general) in those nations.
4) Muslim-Americans are finding ways of life that combine first world prosperity and freedom with Islam, creating a model that will aid people in their countries of origin to find their way through the difficult transition from the traditional world into the modern world.
(A transition that was difficult and brutal for every people who has passed through it so far. For Europe and North America, this transition involved: the 30 Years War, the French Revolution, the US Civil War, the Russian Revolution, WW1, WW2, the Irish famine, the depopulation of rural Scotland, the Ukraine famine of the 1930s, Stalinism, Naziism.....)
5) America feels familiar and less alien to people around the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/nyregion/10muslims.html?ei=5094&en=a1703d031d2a4f73&hp=&ex=1157860800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1157846643-2QMg2M/d1cdRr+DDy4cg/g&pagewanted=all

For the sake of national security, I propose that Pakistani-Americans be recruited to lead a program to provide modern education, with science and languages, to replace madrassas in Pakistan that are teaching racist and violent teachings under the label of Islam.
Might not be cheap, but much smarter than waiting to deal with Taliban with nukes.

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