Anti-Muslim sentiment's too much

The Newsday headline "New imam for NYC mosque" [News, Jan. 15] further illustrates the Islamophobic bigotry in the American media. To refer to a 13-story community center as a "mosque" just because it has a single Muslim prayer room is fallacious because it would mean that Tower 2 of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are mosques for having such rooms as well.

This past year, most Americans have demonstrated a great ignorance of Sufism (not to mention basic property rights) and instead cast guilt by association upon it. And this ignorance has in turn given way to idiotic conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama being a secret Muslim. One would hope that a voice of reason could emerge.

The whole controversy behind the Cordoba House's plans is that Americans don't want Muslims praying anywhere near Ground Zero, even an arbitrary distance of two blocks. But they ignore the simple fact that there are Muslims in Lower Manhattan who deserve to practice their freedom of religion and seek shelter from what is increasingly becoming a hostile society.

As a result of the past year, I am no longer proud to be an American. I barely even feel like one. This is because the country I was born and raised in has now spit in my face and turned its back on me. So now America wants to address the disenfranchisement of its Muslims by treating us as a threat because of its disenfranchisement of us. And in doing so, America betrays its own principles as it destroys itself from within.

Imran Khan

Hewlett