On the other hand, if the presence of Jewish and Catholic immigrants cause little anxiety, the increase of Muslims coming to America has prompted uneasiness. The American Arab Discrimination Committee (AADC) cites a number of violent incidents that have been recorded against mosques and individual Arab immigrants, Muslim or not (Fredrickson 67). The Federal Bureau of Investigation hate crimes report for 2003 revealed the number of offenses against Muslims was considerably less than the number of anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic incidents. Yet, Muslim leaders insist that the vast majority of incidents were not reported (Feagin 90). During the Gulf War in 1991, AADC documented 119 incidents of violence against Arab Americans. Among the episodes noted in those years were the burning of a mosque in Yuba, California; another torching in Springfield, Illinois; and an arson attack in Brooklyn, New York. During Ramadan in 1997, two New York City mosques received threats, although no bombs were discovered (Feagin 96).  

Public opinion polls have also indicated strong opposition to immigrants from the Middle East, but this might be more a reaction to terrorism or Arabs generally than to religion. In popular culture the nation had been used to seeing Arabs in a negative light. The organizers of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were Islamic fanatics, and this spectacular act of terrorism linked Islam and Arabs with violence. As an official of the American Muslim Council put it, Iif anything devastated the efforts of American Muslims to show the good face of Islam, it was the World Trade Center (Loucky, Armstrong, and Estrada 26, 44).  

Earlier on, before the facts were known, some Americans were quick to blame the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing on an Islamic terrorist. The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a special report on anti-Muslim stereotyping and harassment following the destruction of Oklahoma City’s Murrah Federal Building. A variety of disturbing incidents were reported, and false rumors placed the blame on Muslim extremists (Loucky et al. 71-72).

Yet mention of religious issues is extremely rare among those debating immigration. Some observers question how well large numbers of Moslems can assimilate into a society which is largely Christian and Western in culture and orientation. They foresee tensions, misunderstanding, and clashes. Rather than singling out the religious views or the race of the new immigrants, many argue that the latest newcomers pose a danger for America because they believe that these immigrants will not assimilate easily into mainstream American culture.

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