At the same time, it’s a testament to how effective the right was at smearing Obama as a clandestine Muslim who planned to replace the Constitution with Islamic law and recruit your children to al-Qaeda. Each Muslim nominee for an administration position receives a level of background-dependent scrutiny from conservative fever swamps that no one of any other background receives. That has the compounding effect of disinclining the administration to seek out qualified Muslims for important roles.

It also has a policy effect. Recall this line from Obama’s speech in Cairo last June about resetting U.S.-Muslim world relations:

[I]n the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That’s why I’m committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.

Still waiting on that one. The most the administration can say on that front so far is Attorney General Eric Holder has said he’s unsure whether to appeal a decision by a federal judge that the government illegally wiretapped the extremist-linked al-Haramain charity.

This is what a smear is designed to do: raise the political stakes for straying beyond the restricted boundaries of a policy discussion. It’s fear-mongering, pure and simple. And it’s working.

In the latest case, information from laptop computers and other material suggest the five men reached out to al Qaeda, the militant network operating from the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, said a Pakistani intelligence official. The men came in contact with al Qaeda through its local operatives, he said.

Police found jihadist literature at the house where the men were arrested, as well as maps of cities and installations — suggesting they could have been planning attacks in Pakistan, said Usman Anwar, police chief of Sargodha.

The Post:

U.S. officials said they are exploring possible criminal charges in a case that has morphed from a missing-person investigation prompted by concerned family members in the Alexandria area, who contacted the FBI.

“To prove something in a U.S. court requires meticulous effort, so we want to be cautious and careful not to characterize anyone as a terrorist unless and until we are certain that charges can be filed,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

I’ll have more soon on the question of growing domestic radicalization.

Eric Alterman and Adam Serwer make good points about the McCarthyism at work when a noted Palestinian scholar is smeared as a “neo-Nazi.” (Adam: “In fact, if you are Palestinian, I would suggest that you stay away from other Palestinians so no one thinks that you’re doing something suspicious. Don’t bunch up in a group or anything.”) But there’s something else worth adding. In short, the assimilation of Muslims into American society should be properly seen as a national-security issue.

Perhaps the biggest strategic disadvantage Al Qaeda faces in attacking the U.S. “homeland” (how I hate that word) is that the terrorist movement doesn’t, by and large, have any appeal for American Muslims. Al Qaeda gets a more robust hearing in European countries with Muslim diasporas and where Muslims are treated like second-class citizens. That sense of discrimination and alienation is a breeding ground for murderers like Mohammed Siddique Khan, the Leeds-born mastermind of the July 2005 London Underground attacks. The U.S., by contrast, provides the greatest measure of integration and economic opportunity for Muslims of any Western country.

And that’s where Khalidi comes in. He is a distinguished scholar who is not, and has never been, an extremist. His views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as John Judis points out, are fairly congruent with those of the Israeli left. McCain is analogizing him to a “neo-Nazi” because Khalidi is an Arab, and he knows that millions of right-wingers around the country harbor racist beliefs about Arabs. That’s the real meaning of the “Vote McCain, Not Hussein” chants. And America goes there at its own peril: to alienate American Muslims is not only to betray American values, it’s to deprive America of one of its most important national-security protections. And these people have the nerve to say they’ll keep America safe?