As a stereotype, the “good Muslim” has common features: He tends to be a Sufi (ideally, one who reads Rumi); he is peaceful (and assures us that jihad is an inner, spiritual contest, not a struggle to “enjoin the good and forbid the wrong” through force of arms); he treats women as equals, and is committed to choice in matters of hijab wearing (and never advocates the covering of a woman’s face); if he is a she, then she is highly educated, works outside the home, is her husband’s only wife, chose her husband freely, and wears hijab (if at all) only because she wants to. Good Muslims are also pluralists (they recall fondly the ecumenical virtues of medieval Andalusia and are champions of interfaith activism); they are politically moderate (advocates of democracy, human rights, and religious freedom, opponents of armed conflict against the United States and Israel); finally, good Muslims are likely to be converts, Africans, South Asians, or, more likely still, Indonesians and Malaysians; they are less likely to be Arabs, but, as friends of the “good Muslim” will point out, only a small proportion of Muslims are Arabs anyway.

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 703