Lance Bernard: Presence of so many non-assimilating Muslims is alarming

Re “Best defense against a Manchester here?” (Page 13A, May 26): Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus argues that one reason fewer Manchester-type attacks will happen here is because Muslims are better integrated into our society. He references a Pew Research Center finding and states, “56 percent of Muslim Americans said most Muslims who come to the United States want to adopt American ways of life; only 20 percent said they want to remain distinct for U.S Society.”

Excuse me, but can’t this statistic also be interpreted that 44 percent of American Muslims say that most Muslims don’t want to integrate? Well, perhaps some percentage of that number just don’t know, but we still have the 20 percent who specifically state they don’t want to integrate. I can hardly imagine that 20 percent of American Christians, Jews, Hindus, Jains, Buddhists or whatnot feel the same. As for that 20 percent of Muslims? Well, Pew Research also estimates there are about 3.3 million Muslims here as of 2016 (“A New Estimate of the U.S Muslim Population,” pewresearch.org) Twenty percent of 3,300,000 is 660,000, and though it’s a small percentage of our population it’s still a lot of people who can potentially become radicalized. Somehow McManus’ argument doesn’t make me feel safe.

This story was originally published May 30, 2017 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Lance Bernard: Presence of so many non-assimilating Muslims is alarming."