America refused to recognize religious divides that Europe took as fundamental

Evidence

By 1791, when the First Amendment was passed, twelve states required religious tests in order to hold public office and five paid salaries of Christian ministers from taxes. At the time, Catholics were under 1 percent of the population, evincing that anti-Catholicism was primarily an importation of European prejudices, not an outgrowth of local conditions. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 284 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American elites ignored civilizational divides that non-Western leaders recognized; American antisemitism lacked the nomadic desert people accusation of Europe — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 149; American religious freedom was historically limited to Protestant Whites (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• American religious freedom was historically limited to Protestant Whites #complicates (0.78)
• Anti-Catholicism in early America was imported from Europe, not locally generated #complicates (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 284
• America’s postwar Judeo-Christian identity excluded Black Americans and Muslims #complicates (0.74)