Story highlights The Dalai Lama will attend the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday with President Obama

Buddhists were viewed with suspicious by the U.S. government during World War II

Peter Manseau is the author of several books on religion, including, most recently, "One Nation Under Gods: A New American History." The views in this column belong to Manseau.

(CNN) When the Dalai Lama attends the National Prayer Breakfast this Thursday, it will not only be an implicit endorsement of the Tibetan Buddhist leader's stand against China in the name of religious freedom, but also an acknowledgment that Buddhism is firmly established as one strand among many in the tapestry of American spiritual diversity.

Yet it might also serve as a reminder that a religion now considered universally benign once endured suspicion, vocal protest and even government surveillance -- much as Islam has in recent years.

Already, 2015 has seen threats of violence canceling a call to prayer in North Carolina, anti-Muslim demonstrations in Texas and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal comparing non-assimilating Muslims to an "invasion."

All of this would have been familiar to some Buddhists not so long ago.

Today, Buddhism is the model of a minority religious tradition that exerts an influence far beyond what its numbers would suggest. While the Buddhist population of the United States is not much larger than a million -- less than 1% of the population -- the number of Americans inspired by the Buddha is estimated to be more than 10 times that size.

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