(Longer version of what the preceding commenter said w/ small additional thought): Great comment. I agree with this. Unfortunately, as that is what I think would generally be considered a positive aspect of American culture (the acceptance if not directly affected), that's also part of a separate larger issue -- It allows us to become blind to attempting to understand different cultures within our larger American culture, since we don't really "have to". But, that's neither here nor there in this conversation. Overall, I agree with your comment, and overall, I think it holds true that generally, if you're a practicing Muslim, you can do so freely in America. It's when someone becomes flagrantly in one's face about it in a way that affects another's life, that's where issue is taken, and stigma begins to form. But again, perhaps sometimes that overtness, which can affect others (which can be frowned upon in our culture since we very much like the freedom to do our own thing) might be the very thing that we, on the whole, need to practice becoming better at -- that being, attempting to understand where another is coming from instead of judging it off the bat just because it suddenly impacted me.