Europe isn't America in a tremendously large number of ways.
Firstly, we have a history, tradition, and culture of integrating people from a diverse set of backgrounds into our country; our nation is not defined by ethnicity or culture but by e pluribus unum--this is the single most important way that we differ from Europe.
This tradition of multuculturalism is the primary reason why our immigrant outcomes differ greatly from Europe.
Take a look, for example, at second generation Americans. These are Americans that are born to at least one immigrant parent. You'll see that in America, second-generation immigrants are better educated than the general population, make more money than the general population, have a higher home ownership rate and lower poverty ratethan the general population, speak English perfectly, a majority describe themselves as American first, and nearly all of them get along well with others.
Compare this with Europe, where they earn substantially less, have higher unemployment, and "migrant" is used to describe even children who are third-generation British, and many struggle to speak the native language.
Why does this matter? Consider some recent terror attacks in Europe that have made the news:
France - stabbing of police officer and wife. Suspect: Larossi Abballa, born in France.
France - Charlie Hebdo and related attacks. Suspects: Saïd Kouachi, Chérif Kouachi, Amedy Coulibaly. All born in France.
France - 2015 Attacks in downtown Paris and Belgium - Brussels bombings. Suspects: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Salah Abdeslam, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, Khalid El Bakraoui, Najim Laachraoui, Mohamed Abrini, all born in Belgium,and Osama Krayem, born in Sweden.
France - attack on priest. Suspects: Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean. The former was born abroad butgrew up in France, and the latter was born in France.
The fact of the matter is that most of the terror attacks in Europe have been perpetrated by European citizens, not migrants, and certainly not refugees. USA does not have the same problem, because
- Our immigrants are relatively successful and have fewer reasons to lash out against society
- Our immigrants' children are virtually 100% assimilated, doing as well or better than those of us who have been here for generations
- Our immigrants by and large do not live in multi-generational ethnic ghettos that breed contempt for society
American Muslims stand out as starkly more integrated than do European Muslims. This is why the US the situation is much better on this side of the Atlantic.
So what about American Muslims?
Well, I'll tell you about American Muslims.
- They have more non-Muslim friends than Muslims friends, in contrast with the rest of the world
- They're anomalously liberal when it comes to believing that other faiths can lead to heaven
- The percent of Muslims that go to mosque is nearly identical to the percent of Christians that go to church
- They consider themselves American first and belonging to their religion second moreso than do white evangelical Christians
- They are, in fact, less religious than evangelicals, and generally in line with the American populace
- They are substantially less likely to say that the Quran is the literal word of God than evangelicals are to say that the Bible is the literal word of God.
- They percent which believe that religion and modernity are in conflict is identical to US Christians
- They overwhelmingly believe that hard work brings success
- They are much less likely to believe that science is in conflict with religion than the American public
And I haven't even gotten into Sunni vs Shia. If you look at Shia Muslims in the United States, they're about as liberal as American Jews--which is to say, much moreso than the general US population.
The moral of the story is that if you aren't afraid of your zealously religious evangelical Christian neighbor, you shouldn't be afraid of your Muslim neighbor. Between 4% and 6% of terror attacks in the US are linked to jihadist ideology; white supremacists have killed twice as many people as Muslims since 9/11. Mosques are not a threat of radicalization in the American Muslim community, and American Muslims are not radicalizing. And have you ever heard of a crime committed by a refugee on American soil? I haven't. We know that illegal immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the average population, so I'd surmise that refugees are, too. By the way, did you know that net positive illegal immigration isn't really happening, anymore?
And do you think the world is getting scarier? Consider that 2016 is an anomaly.
- From the 1970s through the 1980s, Europe was scourged with levels of terror equal to or higher than 2016. One year doesn't make a trend, and the terror has been declining since the 90s.
- Did you know that there were 80 plane hijackings in 1969? People would flip their shit if terror levels were that high, today.
And in America?
- Homicides of police officers are down... way down. There were double as many police killed per year during the Reagan administration than there are, today (it's even more stark if you scale it by population).
- The homicide rate is down to 1960s levels (and for left-wingers, this is despite the market being flooded with guns, btw).
- Non-fatal gun crimes are down a staggering 300%
- Rape is down by over 30%.
- Missing children are down 40%.
- Basically all crime is way, way down.
- School drop-out rates are at historic lows.
- Teen pregnancy has been more than cut in half
- Even the abortion rate is half that in the 1970s
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