It makes sense given a few things, although it's not as bad as you're saying:
1. The median American lives in a city and has exposure to Muslims and is most likely not Islamophobic.
2. Due to the voting structure of the U.S., people who don't live in cities and don't get exposure to Muslims get outsized voting rights.
3. Most American electeds are much more well travelled than Americans who don't live in cities.
So basically, elites have to necessarily balance (and exploit) the biases of over-represented minorities with their own largely metropolitan beliefs.
All of this is made more ironic in that the moral structures of the Abrahamic religions, including Islam, are all influences on and in line with, traditional American values, which American elites don't follow (see Epstein) but Americans who don't live in cities largely do.
So basically, elites have to necessarily balance (and exploit) the biases of over-represented minorities with their own largely metropolitan beliefs.
All of this is made more ironic in that the moral structures of the Abrahamic religions, including Islam, are all influences on and in line with, traditional American values, which American elites don't follow (see Epstein) but Americans who don't live in cities largely do.