Denouncing the crude bigotry of Islamophobes will not produce a political culture of this kind; neither will polite acceptance of Muslims based on the privatization of their religious and cultural differences. Instead, a politics of mutual respect must be anchored in the realization that Muslims and non-Muslims do not live in separate worlds, in self-constituting and clashing civilizations. Increasingly, we all live in overlapping zones of interaction.

SEED: A possible essay angle: challenging both Islamophobia and liberal privatization as inadequate responses, arguing for a common-ground politics. Pays off: "Cross-religious hostility dissolves only through mutual recognition within shared spaces."

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 719