Jewish issues - European vs. American perspectives

In the last post, Miriam linked to comments by Steven I. Weiss, posted on Canonist. I am cross-posting here my (slightly amended) comment to Steven's post. Arguing that the issues raised by Bloghead should never have arisen in the first place, he says:

As an American, I look at all of these problems and wonder what government
was doing when it got involved in any of these matters in the first place.

It is difficult for N Americans to appreciate European and other countries where there is simply no historical background of separation of Church and State. On the contrary - the Church has been central to government, law and culture in every European country(in greater or lesser degrees in modern times). In this, N America is the exception, not the rule, and therefore, with respect, the comment is meaningless, unless you want to go back a thousand years or so and argue that early medieval town governments in Europe should have declared themselves secular ("We'll follow the American model -- oops, it hasn't been discovered yet!").

Whatever the problems of the situation - that's what it is, and it has to be seen through a European, not an American perspective. A second part to this is that in a country where there is no constitution (ie most of Europe), where Moslems outnumber Jews by many times, and where there is still a complex Christian attitude to Jews (part-antisemitism, part fear, part Holocaust guilt, and - nowadays - overlaid with huge anti-Israel political sentiment) --- it is also meaningless to talk about "The Jewish community cannot and should not consent to restrictions on religious liberty...". They have neither the power nor - increasingly - the influence.