Following the July 2005 bombings in London undertaken by U.K. Muslims, attention has focused on how well U.S. Muslims are integrated into society. Assessing Muslim integration is important, both as a measure of whether the U.S. remains a hospitable place for immigrants and in order to measure the risk of "home-grown" terrorism.

Measured by educational and income levels, U.S. Muslims are far more integrated than their European counterparts. However, two trends are conspicuous. The U.S. Muslim population is concentrated at the higher and lower ends of the income and educational scales. Secondly, U.S. imams are less educated than both the overall U.S. Muslim population and their Jewish and Christian counterparts....

In Europe, the combination of extremist imams, pockets of social deprivation and impressionable male youths has proved deadly. However, while the U.S. Muslim population is largely young and male, it is also comparatively wealthy, well-educated and integrated into the general population. There are few signs of radicalization among U.S. first- and second-generation Muslim immigrants.

Overall, U.S. Muslim immigrants are better educated, earn more and are better integrated into society than similar populations in Europe. Two trends--income polarization and poor education among imams--are causes for concern. However, data suggests that for the moment the terrorist threat emanates from Islamic extremists trained and stationed abroad, rather than inside the U.S. [Link]

[HT: SM]