The Islamic Center and Mosque, to be built near Ground Zero, is not the only mosque drawing fire. About a dozen others across the country are also under attack.
From angry protests and suspected arson in Murfreesboro, Tennessee: "Do you forget 9-11 so fast?!?"
To Temecula, California: "They destroy the community."
American mosques, in some cases, are being portrayed as monuments to terror, or terror training centers.
"It's open season on hate towards Muslims and Islam."
Why now? Especially since the majority of Americans have resisted the urge to scapegoat Muslims in the years since 9-11, despite negative images in the movies and on the news.
John Esposito is a religion and Islamic professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
"People feel under siege, they feel threatened by the economy, by terrorism, etc. The risk is that Islamophobia will become, um, the kind of new form of discrimination, you know, uh, like anti-semitism, like racism towards blacks."
Conservatively, figures show an estimated five million Muslims in America.
And the intensifying hostility and rise in hate speech is alarming to many, like these clerics who we met at a recent Islamic summit in Houston.
"You would never hear any mainstream commentator say, 'Do you think, uh, another Christian sect could open up a mosque? Do you think, uh, Jews should be allowed to open their synagogues anywhere they want?' But we have mainstream news, uh, presenters just asking the question bluntly, 'Do you think Muslims should open, should, should be allowed to open mosques any, anywhere they want?' 'What changed the game? Nineteen people changed the game? How did that happen? Because we've been your doctor, we've been your x-ray tech, we've been your accountant, we've been serving you slushies for a long time. So what tipped the scales?"
Wisam Sharieff, Yasir Qadhi, and other prominent American Clerics say American-Muslims are under seige both by Islamic extremists and some U.S conservatives.
"You have radical Islamic clerics, right, preaching from abroad, saying, 'You cannot be an American and a Muslim at the same time.' Well, low and behold, on the far right, you have quite a number of famous prominent Islamophobes who are saying the exact same message."
The 'Ground Zero Mosque,' as some call it, has whipped up national debate, fueled, in part, by misinformation and fear-mongering. Yet anti-Muslim feelings have been simmering. since last year.
This YouTube video has been viewed more than 12-million times: "The world is changing. It's time to wake up."
Islam has become a political wedge issue, with politicians, like Newt Gingrich, comparing Muslims to Nazis.
"Nazis don't have the right to put up a, uh, sign next to the Holocaust Museum in, in Washington. There's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center."
In fact, a Duke University study finds, rather than fuel terrorism in America, contemporary mosques prevent it. National security experts and American Muslims like Siraj Mohammad fear there's a lot at stake.
Sharieff says, "The more they speak, and the more they incite people, they themselves are a concern to be dealt with. And they have to be told, 'You have to stop this rhetoric.' It's hurting America's security, because it's creating hatred, yes, it's creating a lot of hatred."
The latest 2008 FBI statistics on hate crimes against Muslims don't reflect what's going on now. But experts believe the spike that happened after 9/11 could repeat itself. Several mosques have recently been targeted for violence. Security videos captured an attempted pipe bombing in Florida. And in New York, a cab driver was stabbed after allegedly being asked if he was Muslim.
"Slowly but surely, we will counter this Islamophobia. Everybody had it. The Irish had it, the Catholics had it, the Italians had it. Now, it's just the time of the Muslims."
How long it will take to counter is anyone's guess. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
