On Migrants and Assimilation

Muslim extremists have been accused of a number of religious-based murders against others, including Yazidis and Christians in Iraq; Christians in Pakistan and Syria, and most recently, the methodical execution of Christians at a Nigerian college, one of a series of attacks by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram targeting Christians and animists.

As Westerners with what might be considered a generally liberal world outlook — even among those of us who consider ourselves moderate or conservative within the context of our own societies — we want to believe that this intolerant strain of Islam is aberrant, not in keeping with the real principles of the religion. But sometimes events occur that shake even the most stalwart multiculturalists.

Recently Italy has been facing a crisis of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in the channel area between North Africa and Sicily, many of them from the sub-Saharan countries of Africa. The Italian Coast Guard has been overwhelmed by the number of boats in the water and with the increased prospect of undetected landings on the shores of Europe, success begets more illegal migrants, and thus more boats in a downward spiral.

I can speak from personal experience that smuggling vessels are usually overcrowded, marginally seaworthy, filthy, and generally filled with a hodge-podge of whomever has come up with the smuggling fees and assigned to that boat — no segregation by country of origin, tribal or ethnic background, religion, etc. And certainly without thought to the individuals' moral character. Alien smuggling is, after all, a money-making venture. It is not motivated by any other considerations.

News media are now reporting that Italian police have taken into custody several African Muslims who embarked on the journey in a boat that also contained Christians. During the voyage northward toward Sicily — the gateway to all of Europe — the Muslims threw the Christians overboard to drown, after a religious dispute.

It boils down to this: A group of Muslims deliberately leave their homeland where they are almost probably in a majority, but, if not, then certainly in a plurality of the population. They head toward a mainland that is highly secular and centered on Western values of inclusiveness, but, to the extent that it is identifiable by religion, grew out of a predominantly Christian historical background. What do they do en route, to begin this process of assimilation toward a new life and a new way of thinking? Why, they murder the Christians with whom they are sharing the boat — Christians who, like them, had hoped to leave the hardship of life in Africa behind and start anew.

The irony is almost too much to bear.

If there is a lesson for us, it is this: Assimilation only works for those who wish to assimilate; the job of our immigration and security organizations is to develop the means to capably distinguish between those who can and those who can't; those who will and those who won't assimilate — before they are admitted and permitted to live and work in our society.

This is particularly important with refugee and asylee populations. The track record to date isn't very promising. There is no evidence, in fact, that our government leaders are even attempting to come up with intelligent and workable ways of separating wheat from chaff. Instead, they use platitudes like "risk management" even while refugees, asylees, and resident aliens continue to be admitted willy-nilly in huge numbers, are granted benefits including naturalization without adequate vetting, and plot (or execute, à la the Boston Marathon bombing) mass murder in our homeland.