David,
I'm going to assert that I have far more Muslim friends than you do - and therefore I am privy to far more privately blunt opinions than the party-line spew expelled on Al Jazeera; further, the average American has no shot of passing even a rudimentary quiz on international geography. If I was to take a poll across all demographics in this country, I will wager you a round at Pebble, dinner in the Tap Room and the best looking hooker in Monterey County that 75% of America has no f*cking idea that Arabs and Persians (like, uh, Iran) are different races.
All they know is the same brainless drivel my brilliant daughter gets fed by teachers so afraid of offending one of the violent nutbag sub-groups that she never gets taught the truth. It is sort of like the astonished look I get in business meetings when it becomes obvious I know the difference between the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Southeast Asians and Filipinos.
We are the most ignorant developed country in the world when it comes to international relations. The idiot electorate depends on our leaders - most of whom could not make a 2nd interview to be a TSA drone if they were desperate for bodies - blindly following both sides of the sewer line into idiotic wars and the very entanglements that Thomas Jefferson warned against. And now look at us!
We sit in line at the airport like Concentration Camp inductees, having our papers perused by foreign nationals who barely read English and most of whom could be bought off for the cost of a Sukiyaki stir fry and a tank of gas.
Yes, my "hyperbole" is often tongue in cheek, but so was Ben Franklin's "Modest Proposal" - except that I'm an idiot compared to my hero (aside from C.B. Macdonald). We have X-amount of Quatloos in the kitty my friend - and we need to make sure all those illiterate Black Kids get educated and employed (since we brought their ancestors here at gunpoint) before America worries about the next crop of refugees, many of whom come from countries the United States was stupid enough to tear apart to further the same corporations who dodge taxes while shmucks like me pay full boat to support their murderous activities.
Don't argue with pissed off Libertarians. Bad idea, especially today.