(CNN) -- The world wants to like America. The guiding values that Thomas Jefferson articulated so eloquently -- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- resonate strongly around the world, transcending countless superficial and cultural differences, not because these are American values, but because they are universal values, embedded in the human heart. Americans must outgrow the unbecoming arrogance that leads us to assert that America somehow owns a monopoly on goodness and truth -- a belief that leads some to view the world as but a stage on which to play out the great historical drama: the United States of America versus the Powers of Evil.
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Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf says Islam and America have much in common
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He says both have faith in goodness of humanity and in unity of people
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He says viewing the world as a struggle between good and evil leads to extremism, arrogance
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America's values are its greatest gift to the world, he says
What's right with America and what's right with @placeholder have a lot in common.