| I don't see where you address my points about dealing with individuals, not groups. Generation after generation, many immigrants to the U.S. have come from poor, backward countries and brought beliefs that would horrify you (and me). The Americans who had came before had the same reaction to them you do. But don't worry: In a generation or two, the descendants of those new immigrants will say the same thing about the next group. > to pretend there's absolutely no signal at all doesn't seem good either Copied from a response to another post of yours: many other factors may determine the social views, as an example: Is the group concentrated in a certain region? I'll bet Mormons have a stronger belief in democracy and civil rights than (pick some religion concentrated in a non-democratic country). Is the group disproportionately poor or rich? Old or young? Well or poorly educated? Does it have a political structure that lends itself to certain types of behavior (for example, I don't know about religions, but for nations democratic structures generally yield more peaceful behavior)? etc. Think of it from a scientific basis: Can we control for other factors and isolate behavior down to religion? It seems almost impossible. And what is religion? Scripture? Teachings? The local clergy? Family? Personal beliefs - even those change. Within religions, there is enormous variety in observance and belief; very few if any blindly accept all their religion's teachings. It seems impossible to paint the individuals with a broad brush. You seem like you understand data; projecting from a survey of Egyptians to the likely behavior of every U.S. immigrant of a certain religion seems like an incredible stretch. |
"36% of 16 to 24-year-olds believe if a Muslim converts to another religion they should be punished by death, compared with 19% of over-55s"[1]
"27% of the 1,000 Muslims polled by ComRes said they had some sympathy for the motives behind the [Charlie Hebdo] Paris attacks"[2]
Apostasy is also a crime in rich, well-off countries, like the UAE. Between seeing how these nice countries operate, and these surveys of UK residents, I don't think it's a stretch to think some views might come with large migration. Again, this does not require discrimination against individuals. But it should allow criticism of views/beliefs, and informing the immigration selection process, perhaps via quizzing.
And you know, it doesn't even need to be targeted. Simply knowing that there's a large enough group with such views might be enough to quiz _all_ immigrants on those topics. That way it's non-discriminatory.
But I'll turn it around: under what circumstances would you agree with more filtering, increased quizzing, or any such thing based on a group's beliefs?
1: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6309983.stm
2: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31293196