In New York City this week, an institution is being accused of using Islam to subvert American culture – but this time, it’s on the other side of the East River.

The controversy over Brooklyn College’s Common Reader program doesn’t hold a candle to the Ground Zero mosque debacle – thankfully, Sarah Palin has yet to tweet on the subject – but it’s gotten more than a few people riled up in the past few days. The most riled might be Bruce Kesler: the conservative blogger and Brooklyn College alum wrote the college out of his will when they assigned Moustafa Bayoumi’s How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in Americato all incoming freshmen.

Then there’s the National Association of Scholars, a conservative group that’s already leading an attack on college reading lists across the country. They were quick to support Kesler: “[the book] aims to establish Arab and Muslim Americans as victims and indict American society for making them so.” It all fits perfectly with the growing sentiment that Muslims – led by President Obama, of course – are working to destroy America, but it’s cloaked in the guise of a real academic debate.

It’s a shame that Moustafa Bayoumi’s book, a thoughtful and highly regarded portrait of the group living with this growing antagonism, has to be at the heart of it.

Elizabeth Minkel at the New Yorker Book Bench blog, 1 September 2010

The FBI is defending its invitation to a prominent critic of Islam in America, who is also one of the leaders of the fight to stop a downtown Manhattan mosque and Islamic Center.

The Council on American Islamic Relations complained late last month that Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihad Watch site and is co-founder of Stop the Islamization of America, had spoken to the Tidewater Joint Terrorism Task Force, a combination of state, federal, and local law enforcement centered in Norfolk, Virginia.

“Our nation’s law enforcement personnel should not receive training from the head of a hate group that seeks to demonize Islam and to prevent American Muslims from exercising their rights as citizens,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, who also noted that Spencer and blogger Pamela Geller recently published a book subtitled, “The Obama Administration’s War on America.”

But the chief division for the Norfolk FBI field office, Phil Mann, defended the invitation to Spencer.

“We invite speakers who represent a variety of viewpoints and the special agent in charge of the Norfolk office has invited local Muslim leaders to speak to his staff. That doesn’t mean we endorse our adopt the view of any particular speaker,” Mann said. “Broad knowledge is essential for us to better understand and respond to the threats that we face. Knowledge also helps us defeat ignorance and strengthen relationships with the diverse communites that we serve.”

Spencer wrote on his blog that his meeting with the FBI had been “encouraging.” “I met many conscientious agents determined to understand the jihad threat and resist it in all its forms,” he wrote.

Ben Smith at Politico, 31 August 2010

The FBI’s response has been hailed by Pamela Geller under the headline “FBI Refuses to Cave to Criminal, Hamas-linked, Muslim Brotherhood Proxy, CAIR. Stands By Spencer”.