Muslims functioned as a hypothetical limit case in America before any existed there.

Evidence

It is striking to see how the fictional possibility of American Muslims was used as an extreme hypothetical example, as when the 1789 Constitutional debates on the “religious test” for the presidency entertained the notion that even a “Mahometan” could be considered for that office. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 39

Categorization

• SEED: Potential essay angle: the ‘hypothetical Muslim’ as a rhetorical limit case in founding-era America — how imaginary figures do boundary-defining work that real populations cannot.
• CANDY: The 1789 constitutional debate entertaining a Muslim president is a fun, self-contained talking-point fact.