I have a post up at Danger Room reporting on an Army-funded effort to build a portable laser to protect helicopters from heat-seeking missiles. And owing to this latest outburst of anti-Muslim hysteria, I’m compelled to note that the entire project is the brainchild of a University of Michigan professor named Mohammed Islam. During interviews with him over the past few days, it came up that he first became aware of the threat to aviation from so-called MANPADs (shoulder-fired surface to air missiles, basically) after the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning during the mid-2000s. He quickly saw the relevance of the threat to the military, and from there his engineering background took over. The Army saw value in his project. Now they’re working to field it.

I didn’t want to ask Islam about his background. Crass, right? I figured the story would work better if I gave his name and moved on. But as a post-script note here, think of what we lose as a nation if we send the message to American Muslims that they’re not welcome here.