Muslims Seek Freedom in America
by TChris
This news will upset the "America is for white Christians" crowd:
Muslims appear to be moving [to the United States] again in surprising numbers, according to statistics collected by the Department of Homeland Security and the Census Bureau. ... In 2005, more people from Muslim countries became legal permanent United States residents -- nearly 96,000 -- than in any year in the previous two decades. More than 40,000 of them were admitted last year, the highest annual number since the terrorist attacks, according to data on 22 countries provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
They believe in the ideal of freedom -- something they might find after the Bush administration is out of office.
They come seeking the same promise that has drawn foreigners to the United States for many decades, according to a range of experts and immigrants: economic opportunity and political freedom. Those lures, both powerful and familiar, have been enough to conquer fears that America is an inhospitable place for Muslims.
Freedom means a chance to participate in the political process.
[The post-9/11 period] produced omething strikingly positive, in the eyes of many Muslims: they began to mobilize politically and socially. Across the country, grass-roots groups expanded to educate Muslims on civil rights, register them to vote and lobby against new federal policies such as the Patriot Act.
"There was the option of becoming introverted or extroverted," said Agha Saeed, national chairman of the American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections, an umbrella organization in Newark, Calif. "We became extroverted."
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