I guess that makes sense. It is probably a worthy goal to give people the benefit of the doubt as not being hostile by default, but in the particular case of America's attitude towards Islam I can see how that would be rather hard.

For my part, I am an Atheist who finds all religions equally somewhat baffling, and equally extremely fascinating. Since in my local small social group there is no stigma attached to Islam (even though there aren't any Muslims in the group, merely by chance) so I'm not used to watching my words. If anything we stigmatize Christianity a bit (though we try not to) due to constant exposure to the dark and hateful side of Christianity in our culture.

I am more likely to ask stupid and simplistic questions about Islam since I have had less chance to ask basic questions than I have of Christianity, Judaism or Buddhism. Most Muslims in my part of the country are recent African immigrants who don't tend to interact socially with the rest of the population, so I haven't had occasion to know any well enough to ask the questions I would be inclined to.