What’s it like, being Muslim in San Diego?

There are maybe 100,000 Muslims living in San Diego County (many in North County), mostly Arab, according to, well, the FBI, as quoted by the Union-Tribune. More than many identifiable demographic groups, they’re a prosperous, businesslike bunch, people like Charles G. Abdelnour, the longtime city clerk. But many of the more recent Muslim immigrants have come from hard times in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Eritrea, Tigre, Sudan. They tend, like immigrants from Mexico and Central America, to be from the poorer levels of society who take on the jobs that require doing rather than communicating. Saudis, Iranians, Palestinians, Pakistanis, and Indians have penetrated the larger San Diego business and professional world. Somalis and Eritreans, meanwhile, seem to have cornered the taxi-driving market.