The argument that this bigotry is somehow unusual is nothing more or less than a simple butchering of American history. This country has a long heritage of being less than welcoming to religious minorities. Bay Colony Puritans hanged Quakers. Dissenters were banished from Anglican colonies. Catholics were subjected to virtual pogroms in New York, Philadelphia and Boston in the 1840s and 1850s and the shameful legacy of anti-Catholicism is still evident in 37 states by way of the Blaine Amendments. Mormons. Jehovah Witnesses. Etc. So to say that being the object of religious hostility and bigotry makes muslims somehow unique is ridiculous.There seem to be a few points that the article is trying to make. First, any aspect of American life can potentially be a bloodsport. Second, everyone has been knocked around in the past, so Muslims had better get ready to be knocked around themselves. And third, the author is more perfectly happy with arrangement.
Of course, I would look at that same thumbnail sketch of bigotry in American history and think, "Let's make sure we never do any of that again."
