A lot of fundamentalist Muslim groups are doing this across the West and it's really starting to irk people, including Muslims who just want to lead quiet, peaceful lives and not be associated with this nonsense.
Agreed.
I live within a 50-mile corridor that is home to the largest/densest concentration of American citizens from the Middle East on these shores. And I can tell you, they are not the folks you see in these disruptive gatherings. Many of them are pissed that their lives might be upended because of the actions of folks with whom they might actually disagree. Additionally, we must also acknowledge the fact that not all immigrants from the Middle East are of Islamic theology. There is a sizeable population of Christians who have emigrated from that region, as well. Middle Eastern immigrants are not representatives of a monolith.
Here's the takeaway: all these people came from different regions/faiths/religious sub-sects/political dogma- and found themselves a home in America's heartland. They've been coexisting for 2, and now going on 3 generations. And my region of America looks nothing like Beirut, Gaza, etc. I suppose it could, except for one thing: the people who live here
chose to live here, and as such, they chose to enter and share the social contract that comes with citizenship.
They left somewhere else, so they could be positive participants in somewhere better.
There are no bombings in Toledo.
There are no shoulder-held RPG's launched from I-75 overpasses.
There is no Mosque v. Synagogue/Synagogue v. Mosque violence of any sort. The kids attend school, play video games and participate in band together. Their parents stop and talk about their kids with each other at the local megamart. They struggle to balance home, work and family time... and worry that their kids spend too much time on their phones.
Despite the regional differences of their home countries' politics, they all seem to get along here, in the 419/313 corridor...
...because we're all
American Citizens..02
