Correction Appended: Sept. 2, 2010
To experience what it feels like to be a Muslim in America today, walk in the shoes of Dr. Mansoor Mirza of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. It’s a February evening, and you’re at a meeting of the planning commission of Wilson , which is considering your application to open a mosque in the nearby village of Oostburg. You’re not expecting much opposition: you already own the property, and having worked in the nearby Manitowoc hospital for the past five years, you’re hardly a stranger to the town. Indeed, some of the people at the meetings are like most of your patients — white Americans who don’t seem to care about their doctors’ race or creed when they talk to them about their illnesses. But when the floor is opened to discussion, you hear things they would never say to you even in the privacy of an examination room. One after another, they pour scorn and hostility on your proposal, and most of the objections have nothing to do with zoning regulations. It’s about your faith. Islam is a religion of hate, they say. Muslims are out to wipe out Christianity. There are 20 jihadi training camps hidden across rural America, busy even now producing the next wave of terrorists. Muslims murder their children. Christian kids have enough problems with drugs, alcohol and pornography and should not have to worry about Islam too. “I don’t want it in my backyard,” says one. Another says, “I just think it’s not America.”
