America's newest Muslims arrive in the afternoon crunch at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Their planes land from Dubai, Casablanca and Karachi. They stand in line, clasping documents. They emerge, sometimes hours later, steering their carts toward a flock of relatives, a stream of cabs, a new life.
This was the path for Nur Fatima, a Pakistani woman who moved to Brooklyn six months ago and promptly shed her hijab. Through the same doors walked Nora Elhainy, a Moroccan who sells electronics in Queens, and Ahmed Youssef, an Egyptian who settled in Jersey City, where he gives the call to prayer at a palatial mosque.
"I got freedom in this country," said Ms. Fatima, 25. "Freedom of everything. Freedom of thought."
Oh. Goody. Just what we needed.
Forgive me if I do not wax ecstatic at the thought of more Muslims "assimilating" in this country. Call me what you will, but I just get a bad feeling about such things, particularly when it's a New York Times piece dated September 10, heralding the fact.
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