Two Americas, one based on religious liberty and the other on cultural assimilation, are in tension again in the debate over a mosque near ground zero. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via Peter Daou, Opinion Source, New York Times (Opinion), New York Times (Most Emailed), AllTop, Ish Harshawat (t), David K. Miller (t), Umbreen Bhatti (t), Ashish venugopal (t), Fabrice Florin (f), Shams Kazi (f), Tobie Openshaw (f)
Douthat takes great liberties in generalizing both the history of immigration to the US, and the nature Islam in America. He justifies some of the worst nativist and racist tendencies in the country's history as "necessary" for assimilation, ignoring the indignity and suffering they cause for new immigrants to this country. The claim itself is based on conjecture, and he doesn't provide a comparative example. Likewise, his generalization about Muslim institutions is based on a link to a single court case, and a paper from the conservative Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom. Like Christianity and Judaism, the nature of Islam in America varies from community to community, and can't be essentialized by a single out of context statement.
