By Karam Dana and Matt A. Barreto, Special to CNN
...Despite news headlines often sensationalizing the potential for "homegrown terrorists" there is no systematic data whatsoever to support the claim that mosque involvement or religiosity among American Muslims is associated with anti-American attitudes or behavior. Anecdotes are not data.
By contrast, in the late 1990s when Eric Rudolph was wanted by the FBI for a series of anti-abortion bombings, his Christian identity and religious motivations for the bombings did not prompt the media to question the loyalties of all Christians, nor did Congress hold hearings investigating Christian churches as breeding grounds of terrorist abortion bombers. It was clearly seen that this was one bad apple and not representative of all Christians.
In our study, completed in 2008, and supported by a research grant from the Social Science Research Council, and in an independent survey by the Pew Research Center, the data clearly point to an American Muslim population that is middle-class, assimilating quickly and highly supportive of the American political system.... (READ FULL ARTICLE)
