On Assimilation
I had a debate recently with a family member (who happens to be an immigrant) about his concern that Muslim immigrants to both America and Europe are not “assimilating” and instead are changing large areas of European cities like Paris into “areas ran by Sharia Law” (I challenged him on this as I don’t believe it’s legal to chop off people’s hands in Minnesota at the moment).
As a liberal person, he took great exception to the poor ways that women are treated in Muslim society - not being allowed to drive, not being in control of their own destiny, etc.
As a Jewish person, he also took great exception to the rampant antisemitism these now mostly Muslim areas of town were putting forth, which if that is true, is quite understandable.
Overall, his argument was that these populations of immigrants erode and degrade Western societies because they refuse to adopt Western attitudes towards women’s rights, and isolate themselves from our cultural hegemony to the disadvantage of all.
It was an interesting argument to hear, as just a month ago, while walking into Cedar Point amusement park in 90 degree weather, I noted four women walking into the park wearing full burqas with only their eyes visible, accompanied by a fifth Arab woman wearing shorts, a crop top and sandals.
It struck me that if the fifth woman was accepted in their group, and obviously not shunned, there was a pretty good chance they were wearing such all-black heavy clothes on a hot day by choice, and not because there were being forced to (though certainly one could argue that the burqa-wearing women were just brainwashed by their domineering husbands into wearing them while strapped into a roller coaster going 120 miles per hour).
Going back to my conversation with my family member, it struck me that as a Jewish person who places great importance on his children going to Hebrew schools in their city, it seemed a bit on the nose to be accusing other immigrants of not assimilating. I of course have no problem with Hebrew schools, because as Americans, we all accept that celebrating the uniqueness and differences we have is part of what makes us great.
I think the truth regarding this so-called Muslim failure to assimilate is probably just that it takes time for these long-held cultural expectations to change and meld into something that looks like it belongs in a liberal democracy such as the US.
Over time, there are still a few that stick around, and they are not always just. The Roman Catholic Church, rooted in Italian and Greek cultural traditions, have an accepted sort of sexism present every day at mass when a male priest leads services.
In families of many different backgrounds, silly gender norms persist - such as “male nurses” being something that people still notice as being atypical, or female airline pilots being seen as unusual (as per recent discussions on the republican right).
It is certainly true that some Muslims in American or European cities want the unfair rules imposed upon women to persist. But I believe that like that fifth woman who was dressed for a day of fun in an outfit that would certainly not be accepted in parts of the Middle East, attitudes can and do change over time as people experience their first tastes of freedom and realize that we have it pretty good over here.
We just have to give newcomers to our society time to breathe in our great American air of liberty.