Soob

In commenting on a post at Coming Anarchy regarding growing domestic tensions involving some members of Australia's more radical Muslim population. A synopsis of the story as quoted at CA:

About 500 Muslims packed a hall in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba to hear speakers of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) outline the vision of a single Islamic state created by overthrowing “dictators, invaders and governments” in all Muslim countries of the world.One of the group’s leaders, Indonesian firebrand cleric Ismail Yusanto, called on “all the sons and daughters of Islam, both domestically and externally” to support the establishment of a Muslim state under a single religious leader.He said the members of such a state would have to be prepared for jihad, or holy war, to defend it.

My comment at CA:

Why is it, despite being the darling (and victims) of Sunni fanatical Islamic hatred, we here in the US do not have the same issues? And I mean this in all honesty with zero sarcasm.

I have my own ideas regarding this question, but I think Thomas Barnett summed up the difference, in part, here:

In Europe, the equivalent Hispanics are Muslims from North Africa, and from the Middle East. And we get a real different type of Muslim in the United States on average. You know, the kind of classic Muslim who emigrates to the United States is an Egyptian doctor, and his wife who’s a chemical researcher. And they’ve got 2.5 kids, and demographically, they fit in just fine, because they are used to a certain lifestyle, and they have certain expectations.

Dr. Barnett's take is certainly a very general response. But, given the question he's answering and the time restrictions of a live radio show, they're as precise as the situation allows.

I'll take this aspect of his response and add to it:

Despite the fervent reports of America topping the hand wringers charts of "largest threat to global peace" or whatever rhetoric they're farting out these days, this country maintains a very pervasive social acceptance of "difference" and has a concrete definition of cultural "self." The assertions of a coming American initiated "apocalypse" are based on an obvious misconception that once Presidential policies take place they last, apparently, forever.
Likely those that lay such public steaming turds have little knowledge of American culture, American politics or are galvanized by the myopic idiocy of blind partisan ideology. It makes one hell of a sensational headline to marginalize a once priceless ally in such a shallow fashion I'm sure and additionally I'm sure it plays well in the same "intellectual" arenas that analogize an American president to Hitler.
But, I digress.

Whatever the knee jerk, ill conceived policies of federal oversight, our populace maintain enough sense of social definition to realize that "different" isn't equivocal to "bad." Americans, soundly planted in their own cultural definition (the whole melting pot deal) are the soft bed of goose feather pillows contrary to other nation's taut, evicting cultural trampoline. Certainly flash points of xenophobia occur, but by no means do they extend to forming human swastikas at sporting events, for example.

In short, the American experience encompasses the ability to find success in a society whose societal phobias are far outweighed by both a sense of cultural definition and general willingness to entertain the "different" as the norm.