Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in United States?

This is a great report Amra as you've brought up a very important point.  There is nothing wrong with being a Muslim American.  The fact that there is a negative connotation with 'Muslim' in the U.S. is extremely unfortunate.  What message does this send young Muslim-Americans whose families have embraced and shown allegiance to America?

It is shameful that the Republicans used the topic of being Muslim as part of their attack campaign against Obama because what religion a candidate/person is shouldn't matter.  Colin Powell is right; so what if he is?  The Republicans are wrongfully playing off of American fear of Muslims.  Obama rightfully corrected the attacks by stating his actual religion, however he should have stated that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim-American.  I like Obama considerably, but it showed lack of thoughtfulness and weakness on his part especially since he has African-American heritage (i.e. he's 1/2 white and 1/2 African-American) and should be more sensitive to discrimination.  After the attacks from the McCain campaign, the Obama campaign was clearly afraid of having any Muslim association (they gave into to political fear).  This all showed the dirty and frustrating side of politics in this country.
 
Americans (and all people) must remind themselves how dangerous it is to generalize.  Americans are hyper-sensitive about Muslims right now, but they must realize the majority of Muslims are wonderful people.  Even though the Muslim extremists are very high-profile right now and are tarnishing the image of Islam, Americans should not associate all Muslims with extremists/terrorists.  Should we stay on alert for suspicious or possible terrorist behavior in any individual (w/ any religious background)?  Yes.  Should we give into paranoia and make assumptions and generalizations about people with a specific faith?  Absolutely not.

I agree with what you have written here, Amra. It shouldn't matter in today's world what you believe or if you believe. Traditional religion really has no place in today's politics.

I think it is very sad that so much of the country believes that it is a problem for anyone to believe differently from them. I don't think any of us have the answer. I think instead, we all have a lot of questions.

In my opinion, it might do the US good to have a president who is not Christian. It might be possible then for us to leave the differences in our belief sets behind us once and for all and instead concentrate on what works for us as a country.

The irony of all this is really that the US never have been truly equal under the eyes of the law. It is the game of images. Sure the Constitution states that everyone should be equal under the eyes of the law, but can someone honestly claim that to be true? The US is only a place of Meritocracy on paper, but worse than other countries in the sense that many (especially American) still believe it is really true for the US. The world including the US still is a place where who you are, what you believe in, how you look and so forth matter. Quite sad to be honest. Should it be that way? Definitely not, but hiding from this reality will not solve anything. We should work as a global society on changing it.

Pastery, I agree with you, I am trying to do my part via allvoices, I really want to make a global impact!  and create a diverse and global community on allvoices

The challenge is to as a company be open and diverse in itself, as well as really listen to the community. I have seen so many community sites fail because they try to stick down their own beliefs, preconceptions and opinions down the throat of their community. Inviting a community is “simple”, yet one of the most challenging things to attempt. It is about realizing that what you as a community site think is completely non-important. You have to genuinely speak, think and breath community in all your interaction and realize that communities are not built, they are invited. It is not about design. It is not about functionality. It is about people. People come if they feel connected and invited. You have to realize that you are but only a part of the community.