But is there a difference? My observation is that in the US, Muslims tend to be more geographically distributed, integrated with the general population (with a few exceptions), and earn a living. Whereas my impression from the media is that in Europe, the opposite is true. I'd be interested in your serious comments on my observations.
Yr impression is correct.
Multicultural and cultural equality misconceptions have ensured that the Muslim population in GB is concentrated around certain inner city areas.
The first (large number) Muslim immigrants came into GB from former colony of India (partitioned into Pakistan 1947) to work in the decaying cotton spinning industry in the mills of the county of Lancashire in the North of England. This was first noticeable around the mid to late 50s, when I was a kid in Lancashire.
Being from former colonies they gained entrance to the country easily and they took up low-paid, unskilled jobs in the cotton industry that no one else wanted. Single males with no families, they worked shifts and often ‘hot-bedded’ up to a dozen to a house to share the rental expenses.
Areas of Oldham and Bury and the other old cotton towns are now totally alien. Muslims have congregated in these areas and virtually no whites now live there. The public houses have been shut and churches have been turned into mosques. The shops all have Pakistani signs and there is really no need to have to speak English at all. Welfare benefits are claimed - often fraudulently as the UK system has a problem with identities when very second family head is called Mohammed and, as the tribal surnames are limited, it is easy to see that fraud abounds.
The reason for the limited number of names in certain areas is that the early immigrants all came from a small group of villages in rural Pakistan and now send their English educated daughters back to Pakistan to get married - forced or arranged - and usually to their cousin. The cousin is uneducated and speaks no English, but gains UK citizenship by marriage and so it goes on. He doesn’t need a job because he can claim benefit as soon as he arrives and doesn’t need to learn English as, in his ghetto, everyone speaks Urdu.
I believe that the textile industry in the county of Yorkshire has a similar history and the largest ghetto in the UK is in the Leeds/Bradford area of Yorkshire. This is where the London bomber’s leader came from. There are also large communities in Leicester.
There has been NO pressure for assimilation and none to integrate. Pressure that is now effectively prohibited anyway under the Euro Human Rights Acts.
Coupled with the Islamic religious pressure not to integrate or befriend those of any other faith (this is often not realized by the do-gooders) you can see why we are where we are on this issue
What a sorry story. And sorry we will be, make no mistake.
UPDATED: Study finds U.S. Muslims better assimilated than European ones
By Robert Marus
Published May 25, 2007
http://www.abpnews.com/2180.article