Our Tendency to Pigeon-Hole

I grew up with the notion that all Arabs area Muslims and all Muslims are Arabs. And all of them are the arch enemies of my people - Jews that is. I don't remember being taught to put Arab Muslims on the top of the list of people to despise; I guess I learned it by osmosis.
       These days I am becoming more sensitized to the gross generalizations we make about people groups, how we pigeon-hole a culture or religion and paint them in very black and white terms. Here's a classic case-in-point from one of the protests in New York City a while ago over the Muslim Community Center being built at Ground Zero.