The U.S. Islamic State

I was reading Glenn Greenwald today who is talking about the fear by some conservatives that the U.S. will be overrun by Islamist. What's up with that?

My first thought was, do these people really exist who think this? Followed by, of course there are. And there are a lot of them. And their thinking doesn't stop at Islam. They'll include a fear of anyone who isn't white, doesn't adhere to a strict set of norms and that doesn't looks like them.

Why does this exist?

There is absolutely no empirical evidence that there is any significant threat by any Islamic group to the United States. Despite that evidence, there is a very large group of people who chronically seem to fear being "taken over".

As a former psychological type, I tend to wonder about these people as individuals and their personal psychological makeup. I think the answer to this fear emanates from their own internalized fear about their own existence. Put another way, they're really not sure they're good enough, strong enough, smart enough or (fill in the blank) enough to compete with diversity, or the different. That insecurity manifests as fear leading to actions which can only be called, at best protectionist, and at worst racist.

There is absolutely no way, even in the current state of affairs, that America will become an Islamic theological state. The fundamental beliefs associated with Islamists are so fundamentally different from commonly held American values that is just ain't gonna ever happen. Interestingly, the real likely dangers of a theocracy come from those who are afraid of diversity, those very people leading the charge of fear against Islam. It's is their rigid and narrow view of America that is much closer to traditional values held in this country, and therefore would be much more likely to slowly be ingrained into the body politic.

Ironic. Isn't it?