American foreign policy sins are numerous and some are even unforgivable -- like the invasion of Iraq, which was based on false accusations and has resulted in much death and destruction. But to judge America by its neo-conservative foreign policy would be like judging Islam by what some radical, violence-prone Muslims have done around the world. It would be grossly unfair.

America contributes to maintaining the global order and has created and sustained some of the most important institutions of the international system, such as the United Nations and the World Bank. In recent years, the United States has provided billions of dollars for tsunami relief in Southeast Asia, earthquake assistance in Pakistan and economic-development aid across Muslim lands. The United States is the biggest foreign-aid donor to the Muslim world. The United States also has intervened militarily on behalf of Muslims -- in Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo and Kuwait.

On the domestic front, the United States is one of the best places to live on the planet. People from all over the Muslim world apply, in the millions, for visas to come to this country in search of a better future (even after 9/11). Yet hardly any indigenous American Muslims are seeking to migrate to predominantly Muslim countries to improve their lives. The United States, and not any of the 55 Muslim nations, is the No. 1 destination of Muslims choosing to relocate.

I have been living in the United States since 1992, when I arrived here from India. America took in a young man from a developing nation and, after eight years of schooling, graduated an active Muslim scholar who has testified to the U.S. Senate on foreign affairs, debated Bill Clinton in person and Vladimir Putin in writing, advised Prince Charles, talked at length with the former prime minister of Sudan, Sadiq Al Mahdi, shaken hands with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and had dinner with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Even when I was a poor graduate student, and now, as an active scholar, I truly have been living my dream.

Because of the political and religious freedoms I enjoy in the United States, I am able to practice Islam at the highest level -- that of fikr, or reflection. I publish extensively, lecture and communicate my ideas widely through the media. Muslim scholars have always maintained that true happiness comes from the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and I have found this to be the case in America.

My life as a public intellectual has been enabled by America's intellectual environment, its great universities and, above all, by its open public sphere in which I can participate wholeheartedly, without fear or hesitation.

I am neither alone nor the most important beneficiary of American culture. America has in recent years produced or nurtured many extraordinarily insightful Muslim thinkers like Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Fazlur Rahman, Ismael Farruqi, Khaled Abou el Fadl, Sherman Jackson, Asma Afsaruddin, Sohail Hashmi, Azizah al Hibri, Taha Al-Alwani, Sulayman Nyang, Louay Safi, Akber Ahmad, Maher Hathout, Abdullah an-Naim, Ingrid Matteson and Amina Wadud, to list but a few whose names leap readily to mind.

America also has produced noteworthy Muslim spiritual leaders who enjoy widespread appeal, far beyond America's borders. The likes of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf are creating a uniquely American tradition in Islamic spirituality. American Muslim initiatives, such as the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, have not only inspired research in the Muslim world but have become the international gold standard in Muslim scholarship.

Today, one can talk about an American tradition in Islamic thinking. Like America itself, it may be short on history but it also is rich and powerful, with global reach and profound impact.

The American strain of Islamic thought is deeply sensitive to religious pluralism and strongly advocates interfaith harmony. American Muslim thinkers focus on independent thinking (ijtihad) and the overall moral and spiritual objectives of Islam (maqasid al Shariah) rather than medieval understandings of Islamic principles. On the political front, American Islamic scholars have embraced democratic procedures and in many ways have learned to appreciate the limits of the state's role in religious affairs.

As a result, even as American foreign policy has perpetrated many injustices against Muslims, America's gift of open inquiry and new insights has allowed Islamic thinking to re-emerge from the past and renew itself for the future. This gift is priceless.