“We’ve been Muslims for 1400 years,” says Abdul Sattar Edhi, a one-man charity who runs a Karachi ambulance service and whose wife oversees shelters and orphanages for women and children. “Why don’t we become human beings? God doesn’t just love Muslims. He loves human beings.”

"There are a great many people invested in supporting American Muslims as part of the American community and interfaith dialogue," says Syracuse University religion and media professor Gustav Niebuhr.

Watch excerpts from the March 10 House Committee on Homeland Security hearing and from a news conference held by religious leaders.

On March 10, Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is to open hearings on "the radicalization of American Muslims." Watch excerpts from a Capitol Hill briefing held in advance of the hearings.

At a recent briefing on Capitol Hill, the government and policy analyst for the Muslim Public Affairs Council distinguished between the broad moral principles of Islamic sharia law and and the extremist fiqh jurisprudence of al Qaeda.

"Many people are hoping there will be a more pluralistic government that will embrace the Christian Copts," says Qamar-ul Huda, a senior program officer at the US Institute of Peace.

University of Oklahoma political science professor Allen Hertzke compares Mitt Romney's speech about his Mormon faith to John F. Kennedy's speech on his Catholic faith nearly half a century ago.