Islam in Two Americas

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/opinion/16douthat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=islam%20in%20two%20americas&st=cse

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 10:21 AM
Subject: re:Islam in Two Americas
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Mr. Duthout cites what he considers laudable changes in Mormon practice coerced by the U.S. government as if this were a model for our relationship to immigrants of many faiths. Of course the Church of Latter Day Saints was never an immigrant creed; it is purely American. The community was founded in New York and ended up in what is now Utah because American bigots denied them the freedom to practice their religion, first in New York and then in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. If the defense of the American Melting Pot rests on such a model, it belongs to some other century that I hope to leave behind.

Barry Levine