Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America

In the summer of 2010, furor over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque stoked anti-Islamic sentiment that has been growing, rather than waning, in the U.S. since 9/11. Muslim worshippers were stabbed and shot, and mosques were targetted by arsonists. Pastors, politicians, and pundits of the Right seemed to rally around the idea that Muslims were somehow different and even anti-American. With an election year coming in 2012, Islamophobic hysteria is certain to flare up - perhaps, sadly, even more strongly than last summer. Eboo Patel, a Muslim and a leading figure of the growing interfaith movement, has a different message: those who believe in a robustly pluralistic America aren’t anti-American - they’re the true patriots.