The End of the One Islam Lie

(Those of you who know my biography will know that I studied the Islamic world in college and then spent six years reviewing books about Islam for Booklist Magazine. Hence the interest in all this.)

For a very long time now, Americans have been imagining Islam as a single thing. The nature of that single thing has changed over the years--Islam was a fabulous curiosity that bridged the divide between savage and civilization; Islam was empowered black men; Islam was terrorism; Islam was the opposit