It’s not Islam. It is us.

But the knee jerk reaction of blaming Islam and Muslims, in general, or looking for delusional links to “al Qaeda,” for the horrific murders at Fort Hood points to something far more fundamental, overdue, and urgent — namely something of a psychological barrier for Americans to accept the Islamic component of their own society, culture, and history.

Muslim American Hamid Dabashi in his CNN opinion piece, U.S. Muslims are Americans too. Case and point: Malcolm X and the American Civil Rights Movement.

I think Malcolm X — (justifiably) angry, fiery, don’t-start-none-won’t-be-none-but-if-you-want-it-we-got-it Malcolm X — is a big part of why most (non-urban, non-Black) Americans fear Islam. Americans are particularly good at poking people in the eye and getting upset and afraid when they threaten to poke back. And Malcolm said, without apology, and with good reason: We will poke back.