An uncharacteristically dimwitted piece by Niall Ferguson in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph (London).

The gist of it is, that the French haven’t tried hard enough to assimilate their North African Muslim immigrants, and that the U.S.A.

does things so much better. The piece is filled with Tamar Jacoby-style happy talk about how, e.g., “The US has long excelled at integrating newcomers into American society.”

The US did indeed excel at incorporating Germans (Christian, European), Irish (Christian, European), Italian (Christian, European), East European (Christian and Jewish, European),… into its foundationally Christian, European society.

Whether we shall have similar success with Central Americans (Christian, mainly Amerindian) and Muslim Middle Easterners (Muslim, Middle Eastern), is an issue not yet decided. We can, and should, hope; but many of the indicators are negative.

Also glossed over is the generational issue. It was not the meek, diffident, hardworking, assimilationist Bangladeshi accountants I used to work with in 1970s Britain that blew up the London subway; it was their sons.