Not long ago the fuss about Fox News' statements on "no-go Islamic zones" and "Birmingham is an Islamic city" was all over the news - funny that you should say now that Europe "isn't as accommodating to minorities as the US".

I think it's indisputable that the US, "accommodating" or not, is much better at integrating its minorities and rapidly making them feel like the US is where they belong. Part of the reason for that is simple geography - the long distances making it impractical for immigrants to regularly return home, and limiting the emigration possibilities to relatively wealthy people, except in Latin America, which also means that the Latin Americans are the only community immigrating in big enough numbers that they can afford to band together and keep themselves to some extent separated from other Americans, at least in a number of places. Another part, for sure, is that America does still have the American Dream and a stronger sense of identity and of patriotism, but also the melting pot idea.

But to get back to Europe - the problem is, of course, that elements of the one minority, which is in fact present in big enough numbers as to be quite dominant in some areas, are creating a dangerous climate for the other. This has the ironic side effect of pushing many of the native racist elements, the indirect ideological heirs of Nazism, towards Israel and a pro-Jewish stance, as they figure the enemy of their enemy is their friend, whatever history may say.

Looking ahead to how we can handle that problem and improve the situation in the long term, I would say that a perhaps counter-intuitive answer is inescapable: the situation of the Muslims in Europe needs to improve, and their feeling of being under assault for their religion themselves needs to lessen. And, yes, a lasting solution has to be found for Palestine. Alternatively, it would also help if that asshole Netanyahu didn't actively promote the notion that yes, all Jews in Europe should in fact be considered as Israelis in exile. That may be politically useful to him in Israel, but he doesn't seem to give a damn about how it undermines the message that Europe is trying to get into the heads of its Muslim youth: that European Jews are not in any way, shape or form responsible for the actions of the state of Israel, and the only suitable place for protests against said actions should be Israeli embassies.