If American politicians thought they could get away with calling their critics blasphemers and dispatching them to burn in hellfire, I’m sure there are some that would. There have been times in the last 20 years when not a few senators and congressmen had that look in their eye, and not one of them was a Muslim. Fortunately the Constitution and the common sense of our diverse society have kept them in check. Afghanistan is not so lucky. What we’ve seen there in the last couple of weeks looks like a classic case of politicians using religion, in this case Islam, as a cover for their own cynical self-interest.

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The United States is unique -- not sick, not healthy, just different from about every other country in the world -- and the recent Pew survey about religion in America helps to explain why.

Ours is a society of choice, founded and built continuously by people who opted to come to the United States to create a future and, by and large, to forget the past. The American dream is all about choosing who you are and who you want to become. Think about it. We Americans describe our identity as a collection of things we acquire. I “have” a family. I have a spouse and I have a child just as I "have" a job, I have an education, I have an income, I have a house, I have a car and, yes, I have a faith. Naturally I want to choose the one that seems the best fit.

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