the one statement that can be fairly and accurately made about Muslims, a group of 1.2 billion, consisting of Asians, Africans, Europeans, North Americans, is that there is absolutely nothing extra-ordinary about the vast majority of them. When Americans express wariness about donating to flood relief in Pakistan, it is not the Zardari government they deny, or extremists or the military or honor-killing, Shariah-wielding troglodytes, but the farming and working-class populations of countless towns and villages whose routines differ little from anyone else’s, Muslim or otherwise, anywhere in the developing world.
— Nisa Qazi, “The Muslim Question: It’s not about ‘decency’”
