It would also grant undeserved legitimacy to those Americans who have never encountered a Muslim in their life who really want to reframe the whole conflict as

It would also grant undeserved legitimacy to those Americans who have never encountered a Muslim in their life who really want to reframe the whole conflict as Islam vs. Christianity, and have convinced themselves that the US stands for Christianity in that conflict. I don't know if this is a failure of the educational system to teach them the actual principles on which the country was founded, or a willful denial of those principles, or just plain willful ignorance, but it's pretty disturbing.