In Germany, one of the most world’s most advanced (and generous) nations, the families of Turkish immigrants who came in 1950s still can’t find their way in mainstream society. Much the same can be said of Algerians in France. Terrorists can come from all kinds of backgrounds, but shiftlessness and poverty probably makes young people susceptible to this kind of radicalism. Importing large numbers of new refugees without any realistic plan to help them avoid a similar fate is cultural self-immolation. We have no duty to follow.

Not all, but much of that “Islamophobia” is aimed at chilling criticism of illiberalism. The problem, even in Europe, we’re often told, is that Muslims are too constricted by the customs and rules of Western society. Take this piece in Al Jazeera America—a position intimated by many others on the Left: “Why should American Muslims have to assimilate? Some cultures in the US have been allowed to remain distinct, so why the double standard?”

Even we concede that a double-standard exists (it does, but not in the sense the author imagines) it is hard to argue that some cultures have a propensity to embrace illiberalism and some do not. And the Islam problem goes well beyond the person who chooses to blow up an airport terminal or shoot down concert goers or engage in genocide or stab mothers in front of their children. Aside from secularized communities, there is an institutionalized illiberalism—misogyny, anti-Christian and Jewish bigotry, constraints on free expression, the kind of homophobia that ends with people swinging from gallows, etc.—throughout the Islamic world. Pointing this out is not racism. Theology is not a skin color. And the United States will not be given immunity from dealing with this reality.