RedFive

The knife incident had nothing to do with his religion.

Look, other than personally escorting you to the kitchen in Schiphol, I can not provide "evidence". IIRC his parents, being 1st generation, don't speak Dutch (but might speak French, as many people from Morocco/Algeria do), I didn't state that BTW.

Erm... what good would it do to provide a link on here to a subscription site ? It may be a surprise to you that "on such a site" there are actually about 50% Dutch non-muslims who'd be very glad to point out any factual errors. If it helps, the article was posted/copied by a Dutch PHD (can't trust them furriners can you )

There is no doubt the first generation mostly did not integrate. Not because they don't want to, but because they mostly work hard for low wages, having had no education at all.

It is also a known fact that their children get a much better education, and are stuck between the old culture of their parents and their new country. They are also faced with blatant or covert racism/exclusion, and often start to have a real dislike for "the West". They revert to what is called "invented tradition", and become much more "fundamental" in their thinking than their parents (who often haven't got a clue about what is happening with their kids) ever were.

The "problems" in Holland & Belgium are almost never with the 1st generation, but with the better educated 2nd generation who speak fluent Dutch. The last few years however showed a massive change in that the 2nd and 3rd gen now drops out of school very early. Only 30 % of them finish with some kind of qualification, which means 70 % of those kids have no outlook in life. That is an earth shattering number IMHO.

"Integration" has become a tarnished word for many of them. They feel like they are forced to "assimilate". And the 70% dropouts doesn't make it look like we are working on social inclusion.

Me mum thought me

RedFive

We are overestimating the role of the religion, but perhaps you are underestimating the "anti-Western" feelings of many of them Chris. They - rightly or wrongly - feel spat out by society (I always felt that the UK was a much better place in that respect), and have nothing good to say about their new home countries. That to me is the most worrying thing. We *do* have a problem, but it's not a religious one. Many use religion as a coathanger, but many do not. In a few years time, that might be a much bigger problem than the religious fanatics.

Anyway, as the article I mentioned is "suspect", I'm not going to bother translating it if you don't mind. If only it would have been posted on Scoobynet first