is pittsburgh muslim friendly.... (Oakland: universities, residential, population)

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Just a guess, but I believe the original Scots-Irish settlers had that attitude to begin with, and then Pittsburgh kept getting waves of ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse immigrants. Meanwhile, the local topography lent itself to lots of microneighborhoods, which often had a particular ethnic/cultural/religious affiliation. In general I'm not a huge fan of such de facto segregation, but it does tend to limit the opportunities for ethnic/cultural/religious conflict.

So my guess is that people in Pittsburgh have just internalized that sense of a city that has lots of pockets of different people going about their business without a lot of conflict. And accordingly if a few new pockets develop, it is no big deal--just part of the same old pattern.

But as an aside, I think the one big outlier to all this is the influx of African-Americans, which led to a lot of conflict (helped along by other issues to be sure, such as de-industrialization), and that dynamic still hasn't been fully worked out today. Still, in a roundabout way that actually helps confirm the hypothesis I am sketching, because that particular influx was much larger in scale and involved a lot more neighborhoods eventually than most, so it sorta makes sense how that particular case would not fit into the overall pattern I was describing.

That "de facto segregation" is something I'd like to see more of, since having ethnic enclaves makes a city more interesting ala San Francisco's Chinatown and North Beach (getting more indistinguishable these days, but used to be the Chinese and Italian neighborhoods side by side), or Castro, and strikes me as an example of the much-vaunted "diversity" meme making the rounds these days. It doesn't mean somebody not of whatever persuasion can't move there, it just means that the dominant culture gives the neighborhood its identity. Nothing wrong with that. That being said, I don't think there's a "muslim" part of town, but people grouping themselves together based on beliefs is another whole ball o' wax. Try Squirrel Hill. I like Squirrel Hill, but it could use a little religious diversity.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

Try Squirrel Hill. I like Squirrel Hill, but it could use a little religious diversity.

There's religous diversity in Squirrel Hill! It's not all Jewish! There are Christians there for goodness sake!

Even though there is a concentration of Jewish people in Squirrel Hill, a Muslim wouldn't likely encounter problems living there.

The Jewish people tend to be more tollerant of religious freedom than Christians throughout the United States.

[creepsinc]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Even though there is a concentration of Jewish people in Squirrel Hill, a Muslim wouldn't likely encounter problems living there.

The Jewish people tend to be more tollerant of religious freedom than Christians throughout the United States.

Absolutely true. I certainly wasn't steering him toward Squirrel Hill to start any holy wars. Not that you accused me of that. I'm just hyper-sensitive, because you always think the worst of me.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

It doesn't mean somebody not of whatever persuasion can't move there, it just means that the dominant culture gives the neighborhood its identity. Nothing wrong with that.

To be clear I agree that there is nothing wrong with having different cultures being more dominant in different neighborhoods as long as that isn't an exclusionary thing. But that can be a fine line sometimes, and my impression is that in prior eras there was more exclusionary sentiment than we typically see today in many of Pittsburgh's ethnic enclaves.

By the way, I was once told that Oakland and Greenfield have relatively (emphasis on relatively) large Muslim populations. I have no independent confirmation for that so take it for what it is worth.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

To be clear I agree that there is nothing wrong with having different cultures being more dominant in different neighborhoods as long as that isn't an exclusionary thing. But that can be a fine line sometimes, and my impression is that in prior eras there was more exclusionary sentiment than we typically see today in many of Pittsburgh's ethnic enclaves.

I think it's important to clarify that this is not the case today so I'm not sure why it's commonly discussed here.

The only areas of Pittsburgh where people aren't welcome is the ghettos. And I highly suspect that might be the case for newcomers of any race.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

To be clear I agree that there is nothing wrong with having different cultures being more dominant in different neighborhoods as long as that isn't an exclusionary thing. But that can be a fine line sometimes, and my impression is that in prior eras there was more exclusionary sentiment than we typically see today in many of Pittsburgh's ethnic enclaves.

By the way, I was once told that Oakland and Greenfield have relatively (emphasis on relatively) large Muslim populations. I have no independent confirmation for that so take it for what it is worth.

I agree! It's one thing for people to want to "freely associate" with each other; it's something else if a person/family feels they have to live somewhere b/c of their ethniciy, race, etc.

Pittsburgh has a long-standing Lebanese/Syrian community, and while I think a lot of these folks are Christian, some are probably Muslim as well.

Re: Squirrel Hill, I read somewhere it is 25% Jewish. Some of my father's family of hard-core Lutherans lived there many years ago.

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by Samir_Abdul

im an african american/sudanese muslim from cleveland, and i just wanted to know was there any type of muslim population there and how were they treated, i know philadelphia is a very muslim friendly city, so i was curious..

Here's the OP.

And here is the Religion forum: http://www.city-data.com/forum/religion-philosophy/

Please note that these are two separate forums!

[Hopes]

I hope the OP comes back! If what we shared sounds of interest, I'd like to hear his other other housing and neighborhood preferences.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

To be clear I agree that there is nothing wrong with having different cultures being more dominant in different neighborhoods as long as that isn't an exclusionary thing. But that can be a fine line sometimes, and my impression is that in prior eras there was more exclusionary sentiment than we typically see today in many of Pittsburgh's ethnic enclaves.

By the way, I was once told that Oakland and Greenfield have relatively (emphasis on relatively) large Muslim populations. I have no independent confirmation for that so take it for what it is worth.

Oakland I can see but not really Greenfield. It's mostly a quiet residential neighborhood that I know has a decent bit of Irish people in it.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

Oakland I can see but not really Greenfield. It's mostly a quiet residential neighborhood that I know has a decent bit of Irish people in it.

Don't know what quiet and residential has do with it. It's not like Muslims know as loud and commercial people.

Greenfield does have a decent percentage of Muslims.