From Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Article by: IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF
Updated: February 6, 2012 – 8:58 PM
Distrust of Islam may eventually resolve constructively, if it follows the established pattern.
Photo: file, Star Tribune
As we enter the 2012 election season, should American Muslims be bracing for another round of Islamophobia?
Certainly the 2010 elections were rife with attacks on American Muslims, seeking to deny them the right to build places of worship and questioning their loyalty to the United States.
In Oklahoma, 70 percent of the voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that would ban the use of sharia, or Islamic, law in the state.
In January, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that this state amendment was unconstitutional. The court upheld the basic rights of an American to practice his or her faith.
Suspicion of religions brought by new immigrant groups is not new in America. It goes back to the beginning of the country, as the Protestant majority warily eyed new arrivals.
It was an article of faith in American politics that Catholics would turn the United States over to rule by the pope. Anti-Catholicism was rife in political movements, sometimes turning violent. Not until John F. Kennedy was elected as the first Catholic president in 1960 were these biases finally laid to rest.
