The Swiss outlawed minarets, which seems extreme. My friend V. sent me a hilarious letter to the editor published somewhere in Montreal:
The Swiss are becoming unglued. That's what happens when, as a culture, you think paranoia is a preferred lifestyle. This underlying paranoia has probably been exacerbated by international pressure on their banks to reveal hidden account holders, reduced chocolate sales, insufficient smiling, high altitude hypoxia, wearing lederhosen without soft underwear, eating too many Ricola throat lozenges, skiing into trees, or all of the above. The Swiss should not be taken seriously, as they already do too much of that themselves.
So OK. Except that Canada is vast and orderly and its Muslim immigrants are well educated and eager to assimilate. It's not quite the same in Europe.
Rinus Pennix studied immigrant acculturation in Holland, where different "pillars" or groups had historically been encouraged to keep to themselves, creating a multitude of isolated cultures in the country rather than striving for some cohesiveness. This study was mentioned in The Dutch Model, an article by Jane Kramer, in The New Yorker after the murder of Theo van Gogh. Mr. van Gogh's work was tasteless and provocative and disrespectful, one end of a specter that incited the other and led to his murder.
I'm not sure what the answer is; feeling overrun may be uncomfortable, but alienating entire cultural groups seems dangerous.
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