It should not be difficult for Catholics to acknowledge the reality of Islamophobia and its impact on our fellow Americans. In previous generations, Catholic immigrants were considered a threat to American values—foreigners and papists who wanted to impose religious law on the United States. Many Catholics seem to have forgotten (or have never learned) this history. According to research conducted by the Bridge Initiative, where I work, three in 10 American Catholics admit to having negative views of Muslims. Only 14 percent say they have favorable views of the group. Other polls have found that a majority of Catholics believe Islamic values are at odds with American values; almost half of white Catholics agree with banning Muslim immigrants from the United States.
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