Source: Los Angeles Times
On September 27, 2002 the Los Angeles Times reported that "a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, American Muslim leaders increasingly fear their community is being pushed to the margins of the American political system. Until the attacks, Muslims had been making steady gains in moving into the American mainstream... In the weeks directly following the attacks, it seemed possible that trend would continue. National leaders, following the lead of President Bush, insisted that the U.S. war on terror should not become an occasion for turning against the nation's Muslims... Since January, however, the landscape has shifted. Evidence of a hardening of attitudes against Muslims--at least on the part of some Americans--comes in several forms. So far this year, more than 20 books on the 'Islamic menace' have been published. Leading figures among evangelical Christian denominations have made a series of public statements denouncing Islam as... evil."