Denise Spellberg's newly published Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders (Alfred A. Knopf) offers a fascinating and timely corrective to American post-9/11 anti-Muslim bigotry. While there was a 1,500 percent bump in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the year after 9/11, subsequent years saw a return to "normal" levels of hate crimes. That all changed in 2011: After years of anti-Muslim propaganda (some related to the so-called "mosque at ground zero," which was neither a mosque nor at ground zero), anti-Muslim hate crimes dramatically increased. While most Americans wouldn't deign to harm a Muslim, American attitudes toward Muslim-Americans are a threat to religious liberty. It is a...
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