Do U.S. Muslims need to do a better job of assimilating?

The proposed "Ground Zero Mosque" is proof that Muslims haven't yet joined mainstream American culture, say some commentators

Americans tend to expect newcomers to assimilate to the American way of life, and quickly.
(Image credit: Corbis)

The controversy over the mosque to be built near Ground Zero has exposed an old divide in America, says Ross Douthat in The New York Times. On one side, there's an America that welcomes people from all cultures. On the other is an America that "expects new arrivals to assimilate themselves" quickly, and adopt American social norms as their own. That's the America that sees the mosque as "an affront to the memory of 9/11." And Muslims have only stoked the opposition by entangling themselves with ideas the "second America" finds "beyond the pale" — for example, the imam behind the mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, once described the U.S. as "an accessory to the crime" of 9/11. Do American Muslims need to try harder to assimilate? (Watch a Russia Today discussion about Republicans' views on Muslims)

Of course they do. The mosque plan is proof of that: The people who oppose the mosque aren't "racist rubes," says Jennifer Rubin at Commentary. They merely believe its wrong to desecrate what President Obama himself has declared to be "hallowed ground" by putting a mosque near the spot where terrorists killed Americans in the name of Islam. Showing a little respect for the dead wouldn't constitute complete assimilation into the American way of life, but it would be a nice start.

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