Why is this so? A primary reason is that in the twenty-first-century West—as, indeed, in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe—Muslims are often seen reflexively as enemies and terrorists, diametrically opposed to the religion that defined our culture and to the political systems we hold sacred. From popular culture to global politics, among conservatives and liberals alike, Islam—in the United States especially—is seen as “the great other,” a problem that somehow needs to be “fixed.” Muslims are targets of both popular and official vilification and often outright physical violence.
