Two things are happening in Europe that are not in the USA. One is that Muslim groups are far more plugged into the government agencies and somehow Europeans give far more lea way to Muslims than they do to other religions. In America it is out of line for any religion to claim special rights. We are a bigger and more complex nation than most European nations. We have a wide selection of both ethnic and religious groups.
Most important is that our society appears to be be both faster and more effective in absorbing and socializing minorities — perhaps it is because we are a nation of immigrants and have been at it for a couple hundred years. Secondly, we have very clear walls between secular public life and religious belief which is a protected but a private matter. Additionally, our Muslim population is small (2% nationwide) and from many nations. Among Arab Americans the majority are Christian which helps too. This is further helped by the the fact most of our Muslim immigrants are middle class and well educated — often highly educated professionals. Further, South Asian immigrants are more familiar with Anglo Saxon cultural and legal traditions than other Muslims. Finally, a basic rule of America is “To get along, go along,” meaning a rough tolerance is the expected decorum. Finally, our minorities organizations tend to work together on the theory that an attack on one is implicitly an attack on all. Here in LA an open and flagrant physical attack on a gay would bring down the police on the thugs who did it like a ton of bricks. The one place where the current status of a gays in the USA is different is on the marriage question. The consensus is that gays can have all the rights of marriage under what we call “Civil Union” laws. Most states have then in place. In an odd but very American distinction the title “marriage” is seen as a religious concept, while the legal rights that go with it are secular. We do this to avoid a fight of the meaning of the word “marriage.” Many churches perform gay marriage, many do not, but that is outside American law. This is the general consensus ranging from Howard Dean across the political spectrum to Dick Cheney.
In Scandinavia many of the Muslim immigrants are poor and from nations with deep social and political problems. They are much more difficult to blend socially than most of Muslims who come to America. The long standing status of American women makes it very difficult to enforce extreme customs like arranged marriages and so forth. In American we don’t care if women wear a head scarf or not, but we do not accept the vail. Period. In a generation or two our Muslim women are as touchy about their rights as any other women.
Most Muslim are aware of this and that is why the do not come here. It is also one reason why they hate our country. In Iraq they are now so used seeing our women soldiers that it is having a real if subtile effect on Iraq’s women, who were pretty liberated by Muslim standards anyway.
