To fill what once was a melting pot, America has recruited “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” America needed workers for its thriving industries, strong men and women to farm the bread basket of the world and brave, innovative, risk-taking businessmen to bring it all together.

And they came — in droves — including my own grandparents from Palermo, Sicily in 1910. All were seeking a better life, more opportunity and were willing to pledge allegiance to a young and vibrant country. Who can argue that it was a winning formula?

The reason it worked to strengthen and grow this country, of course, was a little thing called assimilation. Immigrants brought their diverse culture, their recipes and their accents along, but their journey was to become a proud, productive, English-speaking American.

Just last week, a beleaguered President Bush, in support of a massively unpopular immigration bill proclaimed, “We shouldn’t be afraid of diversity. We should welcome diversity.”

Really?  We’ve heard this for years. It’s a concept so embedded in our national consciousness that it is rarely assessed on its merit.

Think: Do we maintain a cohesive country, able to move forward with any sort of a foreign and domestic consensus because of our great differences? Or do those great and growing differences signal the death knoll of the America as we know it?

The melting pot has gone cold. Now it’s “Press 1 for English.” The assimilation that our immigrant ancestors were so proud to achieve is no longer the goal of many, recent immigrants who do not need to learn our language if, through the force of large numbers, they can force us to accommodate theirs.

Many of these recent immigrants will admit to having no allegiance to this country, and, in fact, would bring it down if able. The simple truth is this: If we continue to allow foreign nationals to immigrate to this country without assimilation — if we fail to stop the millions of illegal aliens streaming through our porous southern border — this country that we love, this unique experiment in democracy and unity, in will simply cease to exist.

We have somehow convinced ourselves that we are made stronger and better because of our differences — not our similarities. In this era of multiculturalism, we’ve come to believe — and in fact have been actively taught — that all cultures have the same value. One’s as good as the next and none are better — especially our traditional American culture. To assume so would just be so chauvinistic. So 19th century. 

We need to unwrap this nonsense. America’s culture is superior, in most cases far superior, to most, perhaps all, cultures in the world today. It’s the reason this country is able to afford the standard of living and opportunities she does. Just try and find a better one: Darfur? France? China? Russia? Mexico? Iran? Venezuela? Italy? Zimbabwe? Uganda? Turkey? Pakistan?

Go ahead and find one that provides more freedom and opportunity. You can’t. Perhaps it’s time we stop celebrating diversity and start celebrating and protecting our commonalities — before there are none left and the United States of America exists only as a chapter in history books.

In particular, a significant subset of the rapidly growing Muslim immigrant population presents a grave danger to traditional America. These immigrants, legal and illegal, form Islamist enclaves, which assimilate less into mainstream America than other groups and are much more likely to harbor virulent anti-American sentiments.

In May of this year, the well-respected PEW Research Center, a non-partisan “fact tank” that attempts to discern issues, attitudes and trends, conducted a comprehensive poll of Muslim Americans, of which there are an estimated 1.4 million living in America. What they have learned is heartening in some cases but very alarming in others.

In spite of incontrovertible evidence and bragging Al Qaeda admissions, 60% of Muslim Americans do not believe Arabs carried out the 9/11 attack, causing one to wonder just who they believe did commit the heinous act. 47% think of themselves as Muslim first - not American. The percentage climbs to 60% among younger Muslims. 49% are not concerned about Islamic extremism in the world today. 55% do not believe America’s war on terror is a sincere effort.

Among those that considered themselves Muslims first, 13% felt that suicide bombing can be justified. 32% found that living in a modern society is in conflict with being a devout Muslim. Among Muslims coming to the US since 1990 25% felt that they should not integrate and remain distinct from US society. 71% of the Muslim community that voted, voted for Kerry in the last election. Of foreign born American Muslims, 40% felt that our attack on Afghanistan after 9/11 was wrong and fully 70% feel the war in Iraq is wrong. 5% of those foreign-born Muslims arriving after 1990 view al Qaeda “favorably.”

Do these folks make America stronger or weaker? We asked for the “wretched refuse” and we got it. Now what was that you said about diversity being a good thing Mr. President? That we should welcome it? Celebrate it?  How much longer will we be able to call this country the "United" States?

We’ve been so tenderized by irrational political correctness, our response to this growing threat is to over-accommodate those that threaten.   Let's just give them everything they want  — everything they demand — and maybe they'll learn to like us.

There are public schools in California that offer Islamic prayer services. Muslim cashiers are allowed to decide what items they will check-out. Muslim cab-drivers can decide not to carry fares with dogs or alcohol. Soon there will be government offices and schools closed for Ramadan. Already in England, the #1 name for male newborns is Mohammed.  The University of Michigan just approved $25,000 to install foot baths for Muslims — apparently to necessary to Muslim prayer ritual.

Over-accommodation to a non-assimilating, invasive culture that wishes to displace everything you hold dear is suicide.   If we are to avoid being completely consumed by this metastasizing  cultural cancer — we must crank up the heat on the melting pot — before it is too late.

— Editor