A show of sympathy for suicide bombers among some young, American Muslims has raised new concerns about homegrown extremism, but also is highlighting calls to engage the nation's growing Muslim population.
A Pew Research Center poll released late last month found that, while U.S. Muslims are largely the picture of assimilation, about a quarter of Muslims ages 18 to 29 said the use of suicide bombing against civilian targets to defend Islam could be justified, at least on rare occasions.
The finding was described by some as a trouble spot, and even a hair-raising statistic, but many Muslim scholars had another reaction to the Pew report: What did you expect?
Well, you guys are always talking about a "Religion of Peace". So we're expecting...oh, never mind!
"Given what's happened in Iraq and Palestine, I would be shocked if there wasn't discontent," said Omid Safi, professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Yes, Muslims face mistrust, while we face jihad.
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