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Rima Fakih’s path from Lebanon to Las Vegas, where she was crowned Miss USA, is not unlike other immigrant success stories, but she stands out because of one notable first: she is very likely the first Miss USA who is Muslim.

At a time when many Americans view Muslims with suspicion and hostility, Fakih, 24, sees herself as a testament to America’s promise as a land of opportunity. While she insists religion does not define her, the erstwhile Miss Michigan also recognizes that she can challenge stereotypes of the cloaked and dour Muslim woman.

There is an intersection in central Nairobi known as “five churches corner” (one of the buildings is actually a synagogue). But then nearly every urban intersection in Kenya features a church or two. From my flat on Daystar University’s city campus each Sunday morning, and on weekday evenings as well, my wife and I can hear the singing of two or three nearby congregations, which mix Western hymns, Kiswahili praise songs and contemporary Christian choruses.

The attacks of 9/11 and their aftermath have caused great pain to U.S. Muslims. They have experienced formal and informal discrimination and large and small forms of public humiliation. In November 2009 a white woman in a suburban Chicago grocery store pulled a Muslim woman’s hijab (headscarf) and muttered something about the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. In December 2009 a Muslim woman was harassed by a security guard in an Illinois CitiBank branch.