Up until a few years ago, there was real prejudice against black Americans, such that the notion of electing one as President seemed an impossibility. One of the greatest gifts given to us as a nation (and really the world) by the election of Barack Obama is the proof that racial prejudice against black Americans has subsided in this country to much less than a majority of the people. It took a long time to get there (over two centuries, counting from the birth of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights), but we made it, thank God. Notice that I said "less than a majority of the people". I think such prejudice is such a part of our human nature that we'll never totally eliminate it, unfortunately. But I would rather have it at whatever it is now (20-25% maybe?), then what it historically was for most of our history.Judeaphobia (aka anti-semitism) has always been a problem in America until recently as well. But we almost elected a Jewish vice-president in 2000 (Senator Lieberman), and even the Christian Right has recently championed not only Jews but also the Zionist project of Israel (which is a distinctly different issue). So we're making progress there as well.
But Islamophobia is going to be a tough one, for a number of reasons. First of all, we are currently at war/occupying two primarily Islamic nations, Iraq and Afghanistan. Never mind the fact that we count among our allies and friends many more Islamic nations (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Turkey, UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, etc.). Right now, what most people see is that our enemies, killing several of 'our boys' every day, are passionate, radical Muslims (Taliban and Al-Qaeda, primarily).
Furthermore, most Americans know next to nothing of significance about the religion of Islam. It is a huge, dark mystery to them. At least when it came to African-Americans, they were mostly Christians. When it came to Jews, most Americans (who are Christians) know something about and feel comfortable with the Jewish Scriptures (some of which we call 'the Old Testament' in our Christian bible). But who's read the Muslim scriptures, the Koran? I hadn't really read it thoroughly myself until about 4 years ago, when I taught a church study on it. Most Americans, because they know so little about Islam, are ready to believe anything. And on this issue, the misinformation that been dispensed by the Christian (ie. Franklin Graham) and Secular (ie. Rush Limbaugh) Right in this country is simply awful.
Thirdly, there aren't very many Muslims around us in America. The last figure I saw was 2%, and a good many of them (I've seen the number of 40%) are black muslims, having converted from Christianity. Furthermore, they tend to keep to themselves in terms of their faith (for good reason), and therefore again most people have very little exposure to their faith.
Fourthly and most recently, we now have ambitious politicians and media types using our ignorance of Islam to further their own goals and, in the process, trashing Islam as a pagan, violent, and wicked form of religion. They should know better, but apparently they don't. They didn't do this as much during the Presidency of George W. Bush, because he would have called them on it. He always made it clear that Islam was NOT the enemy but rather those radicals and extremists who abused it and hijacked it. But those pushing Islamophobia now think Obama himself is a Muslim, for god's sake (or at least some of them do), so there's not one at the top who can call these clowns out on this.
These four reasons alone make it hard to see what it is that will provide a cure for this sickness of Islamophobia. And it can do (is doing) a lot of damage to America, because there are something like 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, second only to Christians. Deepening enmity between them and us does not bode well for our future.
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