princealbertofb Wrote:Actually that 52% is probably quite a mark down from what it would be in the rest of the Muslim world. So it's not such a bad figure. Not so long ago in Britain, it was about that many British citizens who didn't believe in same sex marriage.
That's an interesting point to bring up. I don't know much about the Muslim immigrant experience in the U.K., but I've learned a lot about the various waves of immigration in NYC and how no matter what time period we are talking about, or which racial, ethnic, religious group - there is a fear from nativists that the new comers won't integrate or assimilate well and will instead somehow alter or change the existing culture in terrible ways.
But when you look at the groups who were able to find a place and role in the existing society, they adapt well and are the ones to change, rather than force change on the society.
In my opinion, it's when groups are forced to be kept apart, are not allowed a place in society, are discriminated against and marginalized, that's when they radicalized and form their own counter culture in opposition to the main stream one.
I'm sure that the issues surrounding assimilation are not as simple as that, but it's a nice thought that the more new people feel welcome, valuable, and contributing members to a culture, the faster and easier their integration into the values and beliefs that culture holds would be.
There's always bad people of course who have different motives. They can be used to shut down any sort of humanitarian argument I might have. For example, it doesn't matter how kindly and openly colonizers and conquistadors were treated. They still wanted the gold, glory, and spread the word of their god, right?