re: #118 palomino

Your post is self-contradictory. Americans love their national diversity, yet are simultaneously looking for a scapegoat?

Yes- that’s called human nature.

As for Muslims, I think you’ve got it all wrong. It’s doubtful that a majority of Americans would be happy if the Muslim population started to grow more rapidly. Just as many aren’t happy about the growing Hispanic population. Americans may “love diversity”, but there are a lot of qualifiers to that assertion.

They said that about Catholics and Jews, too.

You really don’t think it’s likely that the anti-Muslim rhetoric (mostly from the right) was tamped down by Bush’s smart sober words that “we are not at war with Islam”? Or that similar words coming from Obama would carry less weight with the tea party crowd?

Bush’s ‘smart sober words’ were a snapshot in time. New economic realities, for example, have a profound impact on political realities.

Look, one-third of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim; one-third also think he’s a tyrant. That’s a pretty fertile breeding ground for heightened Islamophobia, catalyzing what was always just beneath the surface.

One third of Americans believe 9/11 was an inside job.