Assimilation

This entire post from Mark Steyn about yesterday's terror attempt is all worth reading, especially the second half and conclusion:

The men eager to self-detonate on infidel airliners are not goatherds from the caves of Waziristan but educated middle-class Muslims who have had the most exposure to the western world and could be pulling down six-figure salaries almost anywhere on the planet. And don't look to "assimilation" to work its magic, either. We're witnessing a process of generational de-assimilation: In this family, yet again, the dad is an entirely assimilated member of the transnational elite. His son wants a global caliphate run on Wahhabist lines.

For the most part I think that America has done a very good job of assimilating Muslims that live here. Here in my part of Minneapolis I see happy looking women in headscarves on the street and in the shops. It's hard to imagine any of them so upset with the entire American culture to the point where they would consider suicide bombing.
But there is a part of our Western world that cultivates this hatred. It started as an honest look in the mirror at Western and historical sins but it has gotten to the point where this section has trouble seeing the positives from our way of life.
They see slavery as a Western ill without acknowledging that it has been worldwide and only really opposed from within the West (and driven by Christians to boot). They see the small remaining vestiges of gender inequality without noticing who has taken the lead in the historically radical idea that women are equal with men. They talk of the evil of industry without mentioning the overwhelming widespread poverty of cultures without it.
There is a cultural rule that we can only speak ill from within our own families. I can say bad things about my Mom but you can't. The modern world with easy communication to all ends of the earth make it impossible to keep criticisms within the 'family'. This section of our culture needs to remember that it needs to provide the full picture, the good and the bad. Otherwise we tell the world, some of whom are looking for excuses to hate us anyway, that we are evil and worthy of their hate.
That's an incredibly bad idea.