In today's New York Times, Thomas Friedman writes a column that very much connects to our class discussion on Bayoumi's "How Does it Feel to be a Problem?" text in several ways.  The most significant is that what he calls "the narrative" - the same thing we called conditioning and a political fiction in our class - is the false sale of goods sold to Muslims AND to non-Muslims about who, why and what is happening in the Islamic world.

Friedman's column, "America vs. The Narrative," is worth reading, it's short and will add to our talk together about this serious issue.

America vs. The Narrative

What should we make of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who apparently killed 13 innocent people at Fort Hood?

Here’s my take: Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced — I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is. But the more you read about his support for Muslim suicide bombers, about how he showed up at a public-health seminar with a PowerPoint presentation titled “Why the War on Terror Is a War on Islam,” and about his contacts with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni cleric famous for using the Web to support jihadist violence against America — the more it seems that Major Hasan was just another angry jihadist spurred to action by “The Narrative.”

What is scary is that even though he was born, raised and educated in America, The Narrative still got to him.

More here...