Washington Publish columnist argues Muslims should not must assimilate in America

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Washington Publish columnist Shadi Hamid is making the case that Muslims need not assimilate in America.

"The assimilation protection — look how effectively we’ve built-in — is satisfying to make. But it surely concedes a premise I now not settle for: {that a} minority neighborhood’s proper to be in the US is determined by its willingness to converge with the cultural mainstream. It shouldn’t rely on that. It shouldn’t rely on something," Hamid <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/08/muslims-religion-republicans-assimilation/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzc1NjIwODAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzc3MDAzMTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NzU2MjA4MDAsImp0aSI6IjI3MTYxYzU5LWJkMWMtNDdhNC05N2UxLTI3NzNiYTVmZDQ5OSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDI2LzA0LzA4L211c2xpbXMtcmVsaWdpb24tcmVwdWJsaWNhbnMtYXNzaW1pbGF0aW9uLyJ9.DcfeobpFw6plIp9OnTE01ldX4KJZ2hhwn0CNLh-lnxs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">wrote Wednesday.

Hamid, who's Muslim, titled his piece "I’m uninterested in proving I belong in America," responding to rhetoric from GOP lawmakers like Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who final month wrote on X, " Muslims don’t belong in American society ," and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who just lately mentioned, "I’m able to do away with the Muslims."

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Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., made headlines final month when he declared "Muslims do not belong in American society." (Heather Diehl/Getty Photos)

"Over the previous decade, surveys have proven that American Muslims are patriotic , civically engaged and more likely than the U.S. basic public to say that political violence isn't justified. You’d assume that will be sufficient. Besides it shouldn’t must be. And that is the place it will get uncomfortable — for me, at the very least," Hamid instructed readers, citing numerous knowledge.

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"Muslims are completely different in sure methods. How may they not be?" he later wrote. "Islam shapes how its adherents take into consideration household, sexuality and what it means to dwell life. Merely put, Islam can be a extra public faith than Christianity. Muslim prayer is visually hanging and infrequently communal. If a Muslim doesn’t drink alcohol or fasts throughout Ramadan, that will likely be extra noticeable to others."

"Furthermore, training Muslims — regardless of being repeatedly requested to — can’t disavow 'sharia' even when they wished to. Sharia, roughly translated as Islamic legislation, contains tips on easy methods to pray, quick and in any other case observe what it means to undergo God in each day apply," Hamid continued.

Washington Publish columnist Shadi Hamid argued Muslims should not must assimilate in America. (Serhat Cagdas/Anadolu Company through Getty Photos)

The Publish columnist insisted Muslims have "more and more built-in into American civic life" whereas sustaining their non secular commitments versus different minority teams, which he says begs the query "Why do Muslims must be like everybody else?" He went on to quote knowledge displaying charges of Catholics among the many Latino neighborhood have drastically fallen and "American acceptance" led to the decline of the Jewish inhabitants within the U.S. and the rise of their intermarriage charges.

"What strikes me about these tales is how a lot they resemble one another," Hamid wrote. "The deal is at all times the identical: You may keep, however you must turn into much less your self. Much less distinctively Muslim, much less historically Jewish, much less recognizably Latino. The specifics of your religion and tradition — the issues that make your neighborhood a neighborhood slightly than a set of people — are handled as obstacles on the trail to actual Americanness. The left and the best implement this expectation. The precise says: Assimilate or get out. The left, extra gently: Assimilate and we’ll rejoice you. However the endpoint is similar."

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Hamid referred to as Islam a "extra public faith than Christianity" and that Muslim prayer is "visually hanging and infrequently communal." (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis through Getty Photos)

Hamid went on to recommend that Muslim Individuals are "extra proof against the secular pull of American tradition" and their protection "shouldn't relaxation on how 'mainstream'" they turn into.

"A Muslim who prays 5 instances a day and believes homosexuality is sinful shouldn't be much less American than a Muslim who drinks alcohol and hasn’t been to a mosque in years. An evangelical Christian who believes marriage is between a person and a girl and home-schools his kids shouldn't be much less American than a mainline Protestant who marches in Satisfaction parades. These are deep disagreements about easy methods to dwell, and a rustic that's critical about pluralism shouldn’t deal with them as issues to be solved," he wrote.

He added, "America was not based on the idea that its residents would ultimately come to agree on foundational questions. It was based on the extra radical proposition that they wouldn’t — that individuals who disagree about God, faith and the great life may share a rustic anyway. Not as a result of they'd converge over time, however as a result of convergence was irrelevant. The query isn’t whether or not Muslims, Jews or Latinos will change. They'll. The query is whether or not America will allow them to do it on their very own phrases."

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Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox Information Digital. Story suggestions will be despatched to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.