Thilo Sarrazin has made waves in Germany with his book Deutschland schafft sich ab in which he outlines his theory that Turks and Arabs are inherently less intelligent and incapable of succeeding in Western society. In particular, Sarrazin heaps scorn on Muslim women, whom he calls Kopftuchmädchen ("headscarf girls"). To Sarrazin, Muslim women are little more than baby factories who "drop" genetically inferior babies at a prodigious rate. Their offspring then up on welfare paid for by ethnic Germans.
The New York Times reports that in the US Muslim women are enjoying success at all levels:
Ms. Khalifa, who was born in Egypt and raised in Texas, wears a head scarf but also juggles, comfortably, the demands of American suburbia: crowded schedule, minivan and all.
She is one of a type now found in most sizable U.S. cities: vocal Muslim women wary of the predominantly male leadership of their community and increasingly weary of suspicions of non-Muslims about Islam.
These women have achieved a level of success and visibility unmatched elsewhere. They say they are molded by the freedoms of the United States — indeed, many unabashedly sing its praises — and by the intellectual ferment stirred when American-born and immigrant Muslims mix.
Muslim women take advantage of educational opportunities and function at a high level in American society without concealing their Muslim identies:
Ms. Khalifa, who has degrees in chemistry and human resources, began wearing a head scarf in her mid-30s, about 15 years ago. At first, she said, people looked at her “like I was different, Muslim, un-American, stupid.”
But she is quietly persistent. When a small-town newspaper refused to run Ms. Khalifa’s ad listing the hours of a nearby mosque, she organized a successful boycott by local churchmen.
Thilo Sarrazin should use some of the $$millions he made from his book to travel to the US and see the success of the Muslim community here. But then he would have to revise his "theory".
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That was a great article in the NYT. Modernization goes on, and Muslims are secularizing apace, even as religious reactionaries become more vocal.
I am reading Olivier Roy’s *Secularism Confronts Islam* and find it very sound.
Oh, and Happy New Year’s.
Good article, but as I understand it most Muslims in America are highly educated and upper class, comparing that in one country to an underclass in another does not prove the point you are trying to make. It is like comparing Deutsche aristocracy to the Russian underclass in Israel and saying: see they can make it.