Traditionally, Americans are a trusting lot. If you say you want to build a cultural center devoted to mutual understanding of various religions, most of us will take you at your word. If you claim to be helping legal immigrants with securing a job, working on naturalization and learning the English language, most of us would applaud and say "Thank you."

Thus, the building of an "Islamic learning center and mosque" and an "immigrant advocacy" center should not be a "big deal", right? In Maryland, Casa de Maryland, an "immigrant advocacy" group, just completed renovation of its headquarters, with $10 million of the $32 million cost reportedly coming from taxpayers. On the other hand, the $100 million Islamic center proposed for construction in lower Manhattan, has yet to identify where its funding will come from.

So what is the problem? Well, first a little background. According to a profile of pollster Scott Rasmussen in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, he believes Americans increasingly view our country as divided between the "ruling class" (in “single digitsâ€