I was referring to the United States; should have made that clearer. As I gather, in Europe it's much more similar to the American experience with blacks or Hispanics.
Yeah, I think the analogy with blacks in the US is fairly decent.
I don't see how it could be. Blacks are not considered foreign to America at all, except to a very small number of ideological racists with mythical narratives about genealogy. Blacks are sometimes considered inferior or dangerous, but there's no doubt to most people that they are American. (Obama here is an anomaly due to his foreign sounding name and cosmopolitan life story)
There are some parallels with Hispanics in terms of questioning allegiance, but that concern is not at the center of the public consciousness, the distinction between Islam and the West dwarfing the distinctions between Hispanics and Anglos. The best US parallels are in the past: the Chinese and Catholic immigrants of the 19th century, for example. There was a lot of concern about Catholics operating their own schools, having an allegiance to the Pope rather than the nation, and setting up their own social institutions - a parallel anti-society to America. Some of the same attitudes are what we hear about Sharia taking over the US, so that laws need to be passed against it in Oklahoma, and Herman Cain needs to become President so he can stop it from taking over the country.. Yes, the fear here is over the top.
I've heard that the vast majority of Muslims don't want to establish Sharia law, even in Europe - that is the kind of thing the left their home countries to avoid. it's just a few organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood that are agitating for it, and a few well meaning public figures and academics willing to listen to them.
