The unbroken torrent of letters in the Inter Lake from virulent Islamophobes suggests an orchestrated campaign of propaganda to demonize Muslims.

The likely director of the orchestra is Act for America, a national organization that recently convened a rally here to rail against immigration from Muslim countries. It is hard to believe that such fear and loathing originate in the Flathead Valley, where there are very few if any Muslims, even though most of the letters are signed by local residents.

Act for America, based in Virginia, was founded by Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian who immigrated to the United States in 1989. Coming from Lebanon after its civil war, she doubtless has personal reasons to hate Muslims and cultural reasons going back to the Crusades of the 11th century. These hatreds have nothing to do with 21st-century America. In fact it is fundamentally un-American to judge individuals by their race, religion, country of origin or the behavior of people whom we regard as similar; decency dictates that we judge people of all backgrounds by their individual character and behavior.

Bear in mind that Muslims constitute about 1 percent of the U.S. population. In eight countries of Western Europe their shares are four to eight times larger, and they are less well integrated. Even if 100,000 new Muslim immigrants are admitted to this country, the Muslim share of our population would increase to about 1.03 percent.

The idea that such a tiny minority aims to replace our legal structure with shariah law is wildly unrealistic. Belief that it would uproot our culture or institute a Muslim tyranny in the United States is preposterous. These charges are outrageous, and anyone impressed by them must be very gullible. Potential immigrants are extensively screened, and cautious comments about them by U.S. security officials have been deliberately misconstrued to suggest the contrary.

So let’s ignore the Muslim-bashing and adopt a more rational and charitable attitude toward this tiny minority and war refugees seeking to join it.

—Bill Cox, Kalispell