NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — In these days of controversy about Muslims in America, a time when the national attitude is being torn between compassion and condemnation, there is a real-life parable to be shared. You know it must be true because it took place at a supermarket in New Jersey, a place too prosaic to sustain any fantasy.

The supermarket is a ShopRite off Route 130 in North Brunswick. It anchors an asphalt patch of retail activity that is grandiosely named Renaissance Square. Nearby sits a Wells Fargo Bank, an H&R Block office, a Buy-Rite liquor store and, in a relevant sign of the changes in suburbia, the Afghan Kabob & Grill.

Since the ShopRite opened in 2003, Heba Macksoud has shopped there every Friday morning, stocking up on groceries for her family of six before going to the afternoon service, or juma, at her mosque, the Islamic Society of Central Jersey. She always does the trip with her friend and neighbor Lisa Yu, a bargain-hunter she affectionately nicknamed the Coupon Queen.

Ms. Macksoud, 44, liked the things you might expect a customer to like about a supermarket. The ShopRite was only a 15-minute drive from her home in South Brunswick. With 78,000 square feet of space and 50,000 products for sale, it could answer any need from a Mylar birthday balloon to kosher marshmallows.