I’m in a bit of a history mode with all this studying for the APUSH exam, so…

I’m not entirely sure about this, but I think it has something to do with the fact that European countries basically imported Muslims because they had a shortage of workers after WWII. Since they weren’t planning on the Muslims staying for a long time, the governments didn’t do much to integrate them into society. But then, the Muslims decided that Europe was the place to be and more of them kept coming. At that point, European countries wanted them to go back home because they didn’t want to deal with integration issues and the economy had stabilized. The immigrants had established families and homes, so they stayed put but still wanted to keep their culture. In the US, the situation was different because the economy was booming after WWII, and the country didn’t need a mass importation of immigrants for cheap labor. Another point: I’m not sure if this applies to other European countries, but France especially stresses the separation of church and state, moreso than the US does. So that just makes the problem worse, since Muslims mesh church and state together.

So, after asking the all-knowing Mom about this, I have some new info. I was wrong about the WWII thing; she said the importation of Muslims happened around the 1970’s. But my main idea about importing Muslims for work and then not integrating them was right. Apparently, that happened mostly in Germany. France’s problem developed more because of rebelling colonies. When Algeria rebelled, the refugees went to France and were alienated from society, I guess simply because of racism. Mom’s answer to why the situation in the US is different is that the US has a more open society and that percentage-wise, there are less Muslims here than compared to European countries. Also, there was never a mass importation of Muslims as in Europe.

Wh- What? Comments? On my web site? Praise be! I had forgotten about importated workers and refugees (I did know once, I swear!) which certainly makes for a different situation. As far as religion goes, I’m well aware the States have relatively fewer Muslims (check out this map), but I wonder what the situation in Europe would have been if they’d imported a bunch of Catholic Mexican workers instead of north African Muslims. No doubt culture and ethnicity play a greater role here than religion specifically, but it seems an interesting thought experiment that I will not carry to fruition out of sloth.

Just wanted to marvel in stupid awe at the geniuses next door, and give a shout-out to both genius mom, little sister, and my favorite bi-coastal whatever.