Thread: Muslim Non-Assimilation

Muslim Non-Assimilation
by James Zumwalt

09/05/2010

The small town of Richmond, Maine, offers a key to understanding why we need be concerned, not only about building a mosque at Ground Zero in New York City, but anywhere.

Richmond’s history goes back to the mid-1600s. During World War II, it became the epicenter of the largest Russian-speaking settlement in the U.S. with people emigrating from the Ukraine, Russia and Poland.

Among Richmond’s residents in the late 1950s were my mother’s Russian aunt and uncle. As a child, I visited them there, experiencing the culture of that very large ethnic community. Russian influence was obvious everywhere. My visits to Richmond ended in 1975 after my great-uncle died and my great-aunt came to live with us.

Thirty years later, I visited Richmond again—but was shocked to see the change occurring after only a generation and a half. Little Russian influence remained. The children and grandchildren of the original immigrants either moved away or became Americanized to the point they no longer held tightly to their Russian cultural heritage. Over time, like many towns in the U.S. where immigrants of particular nationalities settled, Richmond had blended the cultural identity of its immigrant community into America’s “melting pot.â€

We need to curtail immigration from those countries. With the Hispanics and their non assimilation to the Muslims and maybe the orientals, we need to stop immigration period. WE need to rebalance our country and need to cultivate more AMERICANS.