[Jim Scott]

If the Muslim population of Great Britain is actually 4% and not 8%, as you state, than my point is simply amplified by that statistic. That is, in the U.K., immigrant Muslims flatly refuse to assimilate, hear hatred of the west and 'infidels' preached in their mosques (often by imams on the dole) and manage to coerce numerous 'accommodations' to their barbaric social construct that few other groups ever get - or should expect. The U.S. is already experiencing the first two situations with Muslim immigrants and we're drifting toward the third. However, our long history of immigrants being expected to adapt to our culture and our well-known religious diversity including a strong Catholic and Protestant presence - especially Protestant Evangelicals - that is not seen in the U.K. combined with the small number of Muslims extant in the U.S.(approximately 2% depending on the source used to acquire the number) may yet prevent America from morphing into what England seems to be turning into as Muslim immigrants, although small in number, gain tremendous advantages by virtue of screaming mobs, intimidation and threats all camouflaged under the guise of 'religion'. This beating/slashing incident is a sad example of the Muslim reaction to just about anything that is considered 'western': hate and violence. That doesn't bode well for the future of Great Britain and it simply cannot be allowed to freely fester and spread it's poison in the United States while the perpetrators use our constitutional freedoms to achieve their authoritarian goals.

[Winniesboy]

I simply don’t share your pessimism about this. For a start, you understimate (as do many others) the degree of religious diversity which exists here in Britain - it’s every bit as diverse as in the U.S. (although with different emphases), and has been much enriched by immigration, including the various Christian traditions of the Afro-Caribbean immigrants, and the great strengthening of the Catholic tradition by the large number of Eastern Europeans (especially Poles). The problem with religion in the UK is not the lack of diversity - far from it- but the much larger proportion than in the U.S. of those who have no faith. As for the influence of Islam here, it’s not remotely as pervasive as tends to be believed in this forum. Although startling and often rebarbative where it occurs, making for good press copy (hence the overrating of its significance by observers from abroad largely reliant on that media coverage for their information) it’s much more localised and limited than you (and many others) suppose. The greater part of British society, geographically or however else defined, is affected by it little if at all, and will remain so. And it’s counterbalanced, as I indicated in my earlier post, by the influence of other immigrants originating from cultures historically inimical to Islam. You may think this complacent - it certainly isn’t, and I don’t pretend there isn’t a potentially serious problem. I happen to believe that that problem is much more to do with the total volume of immigration, which is unsustainable, rather than the Muslim component within it. I am, however, optimistic about the eventual outcome - and I do live here.