[BobL]

"Hey, the Moslems in France were NEVER assimilated."

That may well be true. I can only restate what I read, and, to the French, they were assimilated (in that they left the French alone and didn't intimidate them). But to the Muslims, they probably did feel suppressed.

So I guess my point is, one day France feels like everything is fine, and the next day they have a virtual insurrection in their midst.

Again, that doesn't seem to happen with most other immigrant groups.

[muawiyah]

Actually, it does happen with MOST immigrant groups in Europe, even in France!

Europeans never figured out how to assimilate foreigners without first selling them on the slave markets or turning them into peasants bound to the land.

Americans cracked the code that makes assimilation possible, and it's darned difficult to keep folks interested in doing it.

If anything, this is the big difference between us and them.