The Big Difference between Muslims in the US and Here

There’s orthodox Islam. Political Islam. Polder-Islam. Euro-Islam. But there is also still the American variant of Islam. I have never heard of it. That is remarkable, as the U.S. is known as a unique picture of a successful integration of minorities in that country.

Two years ago, Newsweek disclosed in a long article how wonderfully integrated American Muslims were in the U.S. In any case, the conclusion was that European Muslims are less integrated in Europe than Muslims in the U.S. The American ones are less often unemployed, higher educated, more politically active, and they get paid relatively well.

I admit: American Muslims feel American in the first place and articulate that, whilst it is more difficult for a Muslim here to feel completely Dutch, even when the person at issue is born and raised in the Netherlands. Logically, it is because America has, in contrast with Holland, a long migration history. America has been built by migrants and therefore is preeminently a migration country. Both old as well as new migrants quickly feel at home.

In the United States, the importance of full and responsible citizenship is emphasized. Ethnic and religious origins are less important. In the Netherlands, the New Dutch are still seen as outsiders, despite whether they are born here or not. In the public debate, they are often put away as ‘they’ who cause problems, those who do not want to adapt and who – when it comes to Muslims – are followers of a retarded faith.

In Jordan, I meet many Arab women who live in America. They praise the country for its tolerance; Muslim women seldom have to explain why they wear a head kerchief, or defend their faith. Of course prejudices about Islam exist in the U.S. and racism lies in wait. Nevertheless, the women whom I talked to felt 100 percent American.

I find their loyalty to that country striking. America completely offered them a chance for full citizenship, and with that America is their new homeland. The Muslim community in America is not, like in Holland, constantly criticized for their ‘deviating’ values because these also exist in any other random ethnic or religious community.

In a multiform society, it is no more than normal that deviating values exist. Of course shared values also exist, like respect for the national legal system. Within that legal system, everyone cherishes the freedom to design his or her life.

A strong democratic society exists by the grace of the space there is to let shared and deviating values peacefully coexist. America is the ultimate proof that this is possible. That is also the reason why American Muslims have taken America into their hearts and dare to call themselves American without embarrassment.

How different it is in Holland, where broker in fear, Geert Wilders, tries to achieve the exact opposite. He wants to isolate and demonize Muslims and spread fear among the majority of the population. Wilders denies Muslims the right to feel like full citizens of society. In the old days, the word tolerance was used to protect the rights of minorities against the majority, but in this Wilders-era, tolerance is used to insult and humiliate the weakest groups.

Yet, hate preacher Geert Wilders is not the biggest danger. Rather, it is the hypocritical CDA of Balkenende and the VVD of scaredy-cat Rutte that worries me. To get into favor with the people, both parties flirt with the PVV: government participation with the broker in fear is not excluded.