From a reader in the Windy City:

Dear Mr. Derbyshire:
I cannot comment on what your correspondent had to say about Friday services in some parts of New York, but I’d like to give you a bit more insight into what I’ve observed happening more and more in Chicago.
I will have lived in Chicago for thirteen years come September, 2010. Prior to 2004 I had not witnessed any women wearing an Islamic headscarf. Now that’s not to say that there weren’t women wearing headscarves in the Loop (downtown Chicago), just that I hadn’t seen any, and I’m basically out and about the courthouse and surrounding areas on a regular (essentially daily) basis. Over the past 5 years, however, and accelerating rapidly since 2008, I’ve seen more and more women wearing headscarves. But it’s not just headscarves, there are women that now wear the manto (during the winter), the niqab (yes, the full-on Saudi-style head covering) along with the Saudi-style abaya (with and without niqab).
I will concede that I’ve only seen four women wearing the full-on abaya, but this seems to be more of a question of timing than anything else, as each of these sightings has occurred over the past 4 months.
The headscarves, along with the knee length camisole-type garment worn on the outside, are a daily observable occurrence on the streets of Chicago.
As you would expect, there is a certain ostentatiousness about these displays, and the headscarves are just one aspect of the show. For example, none of these women smile, and each refuses to make eye-contact with anyone (male or female), choosing, instead, a creepy thousand-yard stare. When observed in groups English is never spoken, but there are smiles and laughter (whew!)
That’s it, just a little slice of life from this corner of the world. Nothing too overt, but the sense of self-imposed Islamic otherness continues to creep forward, with the ideal of integrating into the larger society appearing to wither amongst a growing number of immigrant women.

The phrase that stops your eye there is “self-imposed Islamic otherness.” Americans want immigrants to assimilate, to become American; but people like this reader believe, not unreasonably, that they are seeing not convergence but divergence — some subset of the immigrant-Muslim population moving not towards American norms, but away from them.

Listening to people and reading blogs (and discovering urban legends), you also sense a lot of resentment, which I think this reader shares, at a certain in-your-face-ness to some of these displays — what Andy McCarthy in his book calls “grievance theater.” How d’you like this, rube? What, you DON’T like it? Too bad! This is how we’re going to do things. If you complain, we’ll sic a bunch of lawyers on you. The judiciary’s all on our side, you know. (Which of course is true.)

Having rights is a great thing; expressive individualism is a great thing; but these great things work only when combined with a certain respect for majority norms. To exercise them with a blithe disregard for the quantity of rancor they generate is foolish and antisocial.