Because of its prominence in America's national narrative, the politicization of religion has not been solely a means of exclusion; it has also served as a means of assimilation, at least for white non-Protestants. The First Amendment allows religious minorities to organize and to establish themselves locally in this country, long before they appear on the national radar. By the time their presence could be politicized as a subversive threat, they usually have developed enough roots and means in the United States to be able to defend themselves against such attacks, and they often do so by reading themselves into America's political narrative in terms of constitutional freedoms.

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 279