Andrea Mitchell: American Muslims 'Understandably' Very Worried About Backlash

Everyone knows about the terrible backlash against America Muslims after 9-11, so it's understandable for Muslims to be worried about a post-Boston bombing backlash, right?

What?  There was no major backlash against Muslims in 2001 or thereafter?  American Jews suffer far more religion-based attacks than Muslims every year?  Then why did Andrea Mitchell today exclaim that Muslims were "understandably" very worried about a backlash?  View the video after the jump.

Mitchell's guest was David Rohde, a Reuters reporter who had been held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan from 2007-08 while working for the New York Times.  Interestingly, Rohde sought to downplay the significance of the Boston bombing.  He urged Americans not to overreact, while mentioning the concerns of American Muslims about a backlash. Mitchell then proceeded to validate that observation with her comment. 

DAVID ROHDE: And I just, my personal feeling is that Americans shouldn't let this frighten us all too much. You know, there have not been that many attacks. I've spoken with many American Muslims that are very worried about a backlash, and they, you know --

ANDREA MITCHELL: Understandably.

ROHDE: Understandably. At this point it's a horrific thing that happened in Boston; it was terrible. But the number of attacks are still fairly low compared to 9-11, and I just hope there wasn't an overreaction.  This is a slow process. It's a very extreme form of Islam, and it's not sort of widespread throughout the country at this point.