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Last week in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, there was a rave review of Bruce Bawer\u2019s alarmist book Surrender<\/a><\/i> (the subtitle says it all: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom<\/i>). This week, the cover of the Book Review has a picture of a group of fully covered Muslim women set against a crowd of \u2018normal-looking\u2019 mostly-white Europeans with the headline \u201cStrangers in the Land<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n The review<\/a> betrays more about the opinions of the reviewer \u2013 the noted and controversial academic Fouad Ajami \u2013 than the book under consideration, Christopher Caldwell\u2019s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe<\/i>. Ajami opens his piece by juxtaposing two disparate pieces of history: the departure of Spain\u2019s last Muslim ruler in 1492, and the terrorist attacks on Madrid in 2004. \u201cA circle was closed,\u201d Ajami writes, \u201cand Islam was, once again, a matter of Western Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n The Muslim presence in medieval Spain is widely regarded as a time of tolerance, good government and support for the arts and education. In fact, Ajami himself wrote a positive review of one of the many books on that era, Maria Rosa Menocal\u2019s The Ornament of the World<\/a><\/i>. Placing Al-Andalus<\/i>, as it was known, in the same breath as a ghastly terrorist attack \u2013 as if to say \u2018Here\u2019s what happens when Muslims are around\u2019 \u2013 is beyond questionable. It is intellectually dishonest.<\/p>\n I am with Ajami when he goes after the \u201cmilitants, freeloaders and opportunists\u201d discussed in Caldwell\u2019s book \u2013 the imams who criticize Western culture while living off the European welfare state, the Muslim men who refuse to educate their daughters and practically lock their wives in the kitchen, the Muslim youth who threaten the societies they should be seeking to contribute to. <\/p>\n But, having lived there for three years, I know this is far from a full description of Muslims in Europe. In fact, Ajami\u2019s obsession with such characters (undoubtedly real, but how representative?) again reveals something about himself.<\/p>\n He refers to Europe\u2019s Muslims as \u201cguests\u201d (quotation marks his), and says that they have overstayed their welcome. And then, in a peculiar turn, he tells the story of his own immigration to America. Why is he not a guest who has overstayed his welcome? Ahhh, because as he says, \u201cI, and others like me, accepted the rupture in our lives \u2026 I accepted the \u2018differentness\u2019 of the new country \u2026I needed no tales of the old country.\u201d<\/p>\n Is this America he is talking about? This country that was build on immigrants coming and bringing the best of their heritage \u2013 arts, cuisine, work ethic, commitment to education, and yes, religious tradition. I mean, where would we be without Catholic universities or Jewish philanthropy? Does Ajami really think nations are built by immigrants leaving their heritage at home?<\/p>\n Ajami, of all people, should know better. It\u2019s not like he became an engineer or a doctor. He is an immigrant from an Arab country who has made his career as an expert on the Middle East. Of course he brought parts of it with him.<\/p>\n Was Ajami simply in a foul mood when he wrote this? An academic of his stature certainly understands that the 21st Century is going to be, in large part, about how relatively homogenous \u2018host societies\u2019 integrate immigrant communities. As Michael Walzer once wrote, \u201cthe challenge of the diverse society is to embrace its differences and maintain a common life.\u201d<\/p>\n That suggests responsibilities on the part of the indigenous population (who, after all, needs the labor of the newcomers) and the immigrant community. Both need to embrace and maintain. Both the common life and the differences are important. The hope is that the differences contribute to the common life \u2013 strengthening and expanding it.<\/p>\n Islam has much to contribute to the West. Some loud and boorish Muslims in Europe claim Islam can only dominate. And, yes, a few of them are dangerous to Europe \u2013 including the Muslims of Europe. Some Westerners are responding by viewing Muslims as perpetual guests \u2013 migrant, temporary, throwaway labor \u2013 not neighbors and citizens. It\u2019s a framing that helps neither the old Europeans nor the new ones.<\/p>\n Eboo Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core<\/a> and the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. A version of this article previously appeared in the Washington Post\u2019s On Faith<\/a> and is reprinted here with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fouad Ajami’s review of Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe<\/i> in the New York Times illustrates a view of Muslim immigrants that ignores the realities of immigration to Europe and America, including his own experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n