Esposito directed the next question to Dr. Sherman Jackson, University of Michigan professor and a convert to Islam.

Can Muslims assimilate into American culture and is that the goal?

Jackson said there is a difference between assimilation and integration. He said the answer also depends on whether "we look at America as a political arrangement or as a culture.

"That question would not be asked of an African-American Christian preacher," he said, suggesting that Muslims should not be viewed as outsiders -- not as "one black box entity" -- but as just another of the many diverse peoples that make America.

"Muslims are Americans like everyone else."

Esposito asked Dr. Ingrid Mattson, a professor at Hartford Seminary, about how Muslim women are portrayed in America.

Mattson said they tend to be viewed as a stereotype, a collective, rather than as unique individuals. That's especially true for Muslim women like her who choose to wear head scarves.

She told brief stories about half a dozen Muslim women she knows, each of whom is most concerned in their day to day lives with things that have nothing to do with Islam -- just like women everywhere.

"Each (Muslim) woman has a different issues," Mattson said.

"But when we interact we're being treated as a collectivity. We want to define ourselves."