How Widespread is this Point of View?

[Occhidiangela]

Not quite sure what you're saying here.  That immigrants should give up their religion and adopt the local one?  Should Americans worship totem poles then?

And if you don't think islam has brought anything to Europe, how come you write with Arabic numerals instead of Roman ones?
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Islam didn't bring the numbers, per se, Arabs did. Try not to attribute to Islam what religion did not do. I also didn't say "Islam" didn't bring anything to Europe, and my best example of a beautiful thing Islam brought is the beautiful buildings in Granada at the old palace. Without Islam, the carvings would not be in the shape that they are.

As to assimilation, I want you to consider just what that is. Fitting in. Again, my grandmother did it. She adopted the new language, she made her kids adopt the new language as their own, and her children found new religions (both protestant) while her oldest child remained Orthodox. What she didn't do was stay within an intellectual ghetto.

I may be guilty of some projection here, since there are immigrant communities here in the US, and I thus presume a similar approach in Europe (continental) to the matter of not embracing the social norms of the new homeland. You have read about the attacks on the girls who aren't wearing the right head gear, right? I think it was near Lyon. This is a matter of attempting to import laws, in this case Sharia, into a secular society, France. That is explicitly non-assimilation behavior, just as trying to have multiple wives is not only against the law in the US, but is explicitly non assimilation and a testing of the law in one's new homeland.

Same trouble as stubborn refusal to learn the language of one's new homeland.

I opened this discussion because I am looking for European insights on this matter, and I realize now to help me clear out some possible projection cobwebs from my brain. Similar challenges, different places, and no two situations are cut from the same template.

Occhi

PS: Oh, as to your red herring in re totem poles . . . when you conquer a land, you need not assimilate, eh? It is the immigrant, not the conqueror we are dealing with here. Were the Arabs coming into Lyons and Paris as conquerors, the arguments set forth about "play by the house rules when you come into my house" could not apply since the previous owner is being evicted, and a new owner is taking over the property.