The annual American Muslim Day Parade, first held in 1985, was celebrated in Manhattan on Sunday amid controversy. The event brings together Muslims of many ethnicities and nationalities who worship in the New York region. The parade is intended as a celebration of diversity and pride in the Muslim community, but this year it had a difficult context: national controversies over a planned Islamic center and mosque near ground zero, the threatened desecration of Korans by anti-Muslim ministers, and recent incidences of what the authorities called hate crimes against Muslims, including a New York City cabdriver who was slashed.
