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New US Muslim Campaign Against Misconceptions
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"It is getting worse and worse," said Ali
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CAIRO, July 26 (IslamOnline.net) – As hate crimes against community
members continue unabated, US Muslim leaders and organizations have
launched a campaign to dispel misconceptions among Americans that
actions of extremists represent Muslim beliefs, an American newspaper
said Monday, July 26.
The
Miami Herald said on its website that Islamic groups have tried to
convey to the American public, through appearances in the media, that
Muslims abhor the actions of terrorists.
In
New Jersey
, Islamic groups recently took out newspaper advertisements to condemn
terrorism and dissociate their faith from those horrific acts.
"No
injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the killing of innocent
people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam,"
the ad's text read.
"We
repudiate and disassociate ourselves from any group or individual who
commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts."
The
ads came after the beheading
of American businessman Nicholas Berg in
Iraq
in May, and the decapitation
of his compatriot Paul Johnson in
Saudi Arabia
in June.
"We
talk about the good things in Islam," Ahmed Kabani, president of
Florida
's American Muslim Alliance, told the American paper.
"We
are not preaching religion. We try to promote the right perception of
Islam as opposed to what people have from terrorists."
Taleb
Salhab, president of the
Arab
American
Community Center
in
Orlando
, told the paper that Islamic organizations have held forums with
schools, law enforcement groups and non-Muslims to sensitize them to
Muslim concerns and issues.
"Hopefully
this will alleviate some of the problems of a lack of awareness and
understanding of (Islam and) Muslims."
Rising
Hate
Muslim
leaders had to keep their efforts to clarify the true image of Islam,
with hate crimes continuing to rise against Muslims, without
discrimination.
Areej
Zufari, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of Central Florida, was
a victim of the hate she is trying to discourage, The Miami
Herald said.
She
was attacked after a recent interview on national TV in which she
urged Americans not to blame Muslims for the beheading of Berg
"by Al-Qaeda-linked militants" in
Iraq
.
Following
the TV interview, two men confronted Zufari inside a gas station's
convenience store in
Orlando
, spewing out a string of vulgarities and sexually inappropriate
remarks.
Zufari
said after the two men who attacked her left, she told a police
officer who had walked into the store about the incident.
She
said the officer told her that unless the men touched her, they
weren't breaking the law.
"We
are mourning with the American people but people's anger overwhelms
them and they act out in different ways," Zufari said.
Days
after the slaying of Johnson in
Saudi Arabia
last month, vandals broke windows of an Islamic center in the
Tampa
suburb of Lutz and scrawled the words "Kill All Muslims" on
the walls inside. The graffiti, written in marker and crayon, also
included a derogatory message about Allah.
Islam
strictly forbids the killing of safe non-Muslims (Christians or Jews)
who were not fighting Muslims. The killing of non-Muslim hostages have
been vehemently
condemned by Muslim scholars.
Workshops
With
the rising wave of such incidents, the
Florida
office of Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has held
workshops for Muslims on how to deal with cases of harassment,
discrimination and vandalism.
Salhab
said Muslim groups are also working more closely with law enforcement
agencies to assure that they treat vandalism of mosques and Islamic
centers and the harassment of Muslims as hate crimes.
Sara
Oates, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in
Tampa
, told the daily the agency has reached out to mosques and Muslim
leaders "to let them know we are taking these matters
seriously." CAIR put at 35,000 the number of Muslims live
in the
Tampa
Bay
area.
CAIR
officials say such incidents are likely to be higher this year, but
they won't have any statistics until later, according to the Miami
Herald.
The
Florida CAIR office said there have been 32 anti-Muslim incidents in
Florida
so far this year.
"It
is getting worse and worse," said Altaf Ali, executive director
of the Florida CAIR. "Before it was normal discrimination for
Muslims in places of employment.
"Now
I'm seeing more hate crimes and vandalism in places of worship, and
there is still a lot of profiling of Muslims at airports."
Recent
incidents in
Florida
and elsewhere include death threats, physical and verbal assaults,
hate mails, arsons and vandalism of mosques, Islamic schools and
cultural centers. Muslims have also faced a mounting backlash since
the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks.
The
US
Justice Department has investigated 549 "backlash" crimes
since the
9/11/2001
attacks. But according to CAIR, there have been more than 1,000
incidents of harassment or hate crimes against Muslims last year, up
from about 600 in 2002.
Observers
said the government also help entrench misconceptions on Muslims into
the minds of Americans.
Press
reports said this month that the FBI has launched a nationwide
campaign to question Muslim and Arab Americans after intelligence
warnings of possible terrorist attacks.
On
July 1, agents raided an Islamic institute in
Northern Virginia
, with no reasons cited, a move seen by an American Muslim civil
rights group as a "new
fishing expedition".
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