I months in 2005 researching and writing a long feature about the overwhelming utility that American openness to both religiosity and immigrants has for national security. Why has the U.S. largely avoided the radicalization of its Muslim diaspora when, to a degree, Europe has been afflicted by the phenomenon?

America’s blend of liberalism and religiosity, in other words, has created perhaps the most potent weapon against Al Qaeda conceivable: a resolution to the identity crisis of Western Muslim life that bin Laden preys upon. When Abdul Rauf came to the United States from Egypt 40 years ago, Muslims were a curious unfamiliarity to most Americans, and the impact on his mental health was real. “Myself, I suffered for eight years from an identity crisis–not knowing who I was,” he recalls. Back then, “when Muhammad Ali became a Muslim, he was seen as rejecting America.” Yet, as Abdul Rauf explored both his faith and his new country, he recognized that reconciliation was not just possible, it was natural. His project now, like that of many other U.S. Muslim organizations, is straightforward: “We’re looking to expedite the creation of an American Muslim identity in order to resolve the issues between the U.S. and the Muslim world.” What Abdul Rauf means is a public identity seamlessly blending Islam and Americanism and reinforcing both. For Patel, this is the most important front in the war on terrorism. “The battlefield is identity, and the players are young people,” he says. “When I first tell people about the Interfaith Youth Core, people say, ‘Aw, what a sweet organization.’ But there’s another guy running a youth organization, and his name is Osama bin Laden.”

And now we read this shit. The only “evidence” these disgraceful GOP members of Congress have is a book published by the birther website WorldNetDaily about how one of its birther jungend pretended to be a Muslim to “infiltrate” the Council on American Islamic Relations and found… evidence of it lobbying on Capitol Hill. We should call this what it is: un-American, racist and detrimental to national security.