Assimilate or Integrate? In Illinois many of the 400,000 American Muslims have done both

A blogger calling herself "a12iggymom" says that American Muslims in and around Cook County are not assimilating.

I'm familiar with this particular community and I disagree with "a12iggymom" because many American Muslims in this community have assimilated.

Fortunately for our American Muslim community and for our broader American community, more American Muslims have opted to integrate rather than assimilate.  There is a subtle difference.

I see assimilation as blending in so completely as to become indistinguishable from the whole.  Integration certainly involves some aspects of assimilation.  It involves adopting some values and some cultural traditions.  But integration allows for the retention of important, distinguishing characteristics and values and helps enrich society.

Assimilation invokes the "melting pot" metaphor.  Integration invokes the "potpourri" metaphor.  I believe the latter is better for our country.

There are definitely pockets of American Muslims who are neither assimilating nor integrating.  That's a darn shame, but in the end, that's also their right in our free society.

I'm not sure why Ms. a12iggymom seems so down on American Muslims.  Sure there are some bad apples like the men who try to harm us, but with 6 million American Muslims (and growing) living peacefully in the U.S. it is clear that 99.99% of our community is peaceful.